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handle  this  volume 

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Libraries,  Storrs 


BOOK     170.B467Y    c.  1 

3EVERinGE     #    VOUNG    MAN    AND    WORLD 


3  T1S3  OOOOSlbfi  2 


THE  YOUNG   MAN   AND 
THE   WORLD 


The  Young  Man  and 
the  World 


ALBERT  J;'bEVERIDGE 

United  States  Senator  from  Indiana 


STANDARD  LIBRARY 


BUFFALO,  N.  Y. 
CORLIS  COMPANY,  PUBLISHERS 

1907 


XiO- 


COPTKIGHT,   1905,  BY 

D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


PREFACE 


The  chapters  of  this  volume  were,  orig- 
inally, papers  published  in  Tlie  Saturday 
Evening  Post  of  Philadelphia.  The  fii'st 
paper  on  "  The  Young  Man  and  the  World," 
which  gives  the  title  to  the  book,  was  written, 
at  the  request  of  the  editor  of  that  magazine, 
as  an  addition  to  a  series  of  articles  upon  the 
Philippines  and  statesmen  of  contemporane- 
ous eminence. 

This  paper  called  for  another,  and  each  in 
its  turn  called  for  the  one  that  followed  it. 
And  so  the  series  grew  from  day  to  day, 
largely  out  of  the  suggestions  of  its  readers 
— a  sort  of  collaboration.  A  considerable 
correspondence  resulted,  and  requests  were 
made  that  the  articles  be  collected  in  perma- 
nent form.  This  is  the  genesis  of  this  book. 
I  hope  it  will  do  some  good. 

While  addressed  more  directly  to  young 
men,  these  papers  were  yet  written  for  men 
on  both  sides  the  hill  and  on  the  crest  thereof. 


PREFACE 

I  would  draw  maturity  and  youth  closer  to- 
gether. I  would  have  the  spiipathy  between 
them  ever  fresh  and  vital.  I  would  have  them 
understand  one  another  and  thus  profit  each 
by  the  strength  of  the  other. 

The  mamier  in  which  these  papers  were 
written  created  certain  repetitions.  After 
careful  consideration  I  have  concluded  to  let 
them  remam.  They  are  upon  subjects  of 
vital  concern.  Where  it  is  necessary  to  re- 
member, it  is  better  to  be  wearied  than  to 
forget.  And  these  papers  were  meant  to  be 
helpful.  They  are  merely  plam  talks  as  of 
friends  conferring  together. 

AXBERT  J.    BeVERIDGE. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

I, — The  Young  Man  and  the  World       ...        1 
II.— The  Old  Home 54 

III, — The  College  ? 83 

1.  The  Young  Man  who  Goes. 

2.  The  Young  Man  who  Cannot  Go. 

IV.— The  New  Home 152 

V. — The  Young  Lawyer  and  His  Beginnings     .   186 

VI. — Public  Speaking 217 

VII. — The  Young  Man  and  the  Pulpit  ....  246 

VIII. — Great  Things  yet  to  be  Done      ....  278 

IX. — Negative  Fundamentals 310 

X. — The  Young  Man  and  the  Nation       .     .     .  334 

XI. — The  World  and  the  Young  Man.     .     .     .    366 

XII. — The  Young  Man's  Second  Wind  ;  or.  Facing 

the  World  at  Fifty 387 


THE  YOUNG  MAN  AND  THE 
WORLD 


THE  YOUNG   MAN   AND   THE   WORLD 

Be  honest  with  the  world  and  the  world  will 
be  honest  with  you.  This  is  the  fundamental 
truth  of  all  real  prosperity  and  happiness.  For 
the  purposes  of  every  man's  daily  affairs,  all 
other  maxims  are  to  this  central  verity  as  the 
branches  of  a  tree  to  its  rooted  trunk. 

The  world  will  be  honest  with  you  whether 
you  are  honest  with  it  or  not.  You  cannot 
trick  it — remember  that.  If  you  try  it,  the 
world  will  punish  you  when  it  discovers  your 
fraud.  But  be  honest  with  the  world  from 
nobler  motives  than  prudence. 

Prudence  will  not  make  you  he  honest — it 
will  only  make  you  act  honest.  And  you  must 
be  honest. 

I  do  not  mean  that  lowest  form  of  honesty 
which  bids  you  keep  your  hands  clean  of  an- 

1 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

other's  goods  or  money;  I  do  not  mean  that 
you  shall  not  be  a  "  grafter,"  to  use  the  foul 
and  sinister  word  which  certain  base  practices 
have  recently  compelled  us  to  coin.  Of  course 
you  will  be  honest  in  a  money  sense. 

But  that  is  only  the  beginning ;  you  must  go 
farther  in  your  dealings  with  the  world.  You 
must  be  intellectually  honest.  Do  not  pretend 
to  be  what  you  are  not — no  affectations,  no 
simulations,  no  falsehoods  either  of  speech  or 
thought,  of  conduct  or  attitude.  Let  truth 
abide  in  the  very  heart  of  you. 

"  I  take  no  stock  in  that  man;  he  poses  his 
face,  he  attitudinizes  his  features.  The  man 
who  tries  to  impress  me  by  his  countenance  is 
constitutionally  false,"  said  the  editor  of  a 
powerful  publication,  in  commenting  on  a  cer- 
tain personage  then  somewhat  in  the  public 
eye. 

You  see  how  important  honesty  is  even  in 
facial  expression.  I  emphasize  this  veracity 
of  character  because  it  is  elemental.  You  may 
have  all  the  gifts  and  graces  but  if  you  have 
not  this  essential  you  are  bankrupt.  Be  hon- 
est to  the  bone.  Be  clean  of  blood  as  well  as 
of  tongue. 

Never  try  to  create  a  deeper  impression  than 
Nature  creates  for  you,  and  that  means  never 

2 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

attempt  to  create  any  impression  at  all.  For 
example,  never  try  to  look  wise.  Many  a 
front  of  gravity  and  weight  conceals  an  intel- 
lectual desolation.  In  Moscow  you  will  find 
the  exact  external  counterpart  of  Tolstoi.  It 
is  said  that  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  the  phi- 
losopher from  his  double.  Yet  this  duplicate 
in  appearance  of  the  greatest  of  living  writ- 
ers is  a  cab  driver  without  even  the  brightness 
of  the  jehu. 

Be  what  j'-ou  are,  therefore,  and  no  more; 
yes,  and  no  less — which  is  equally  important. 
In  a  word,  start  right.  Be  honest  with  your- 
self, too.  If  you  have  started  wrong,  go  back 
and  start  over  again.  But  don't  change  more 
than  once.  Some  men  never  finish  because 
they  are  always  beginning.  Be  careful  how 
you  choose  and  then  stick  to  your  second 
choice.  A  poor  claim  steadily  worked  may  be 
better  than  a  good  one  half  developed.  The 
man  who  makes  too  many  starts  seldom  makes 
anything  else. 

But  don't  pretend  that  you  have  a  thousand 
dollars  in  bank  when  you  hold  in  your  hands 
the  statement  of  your  overdraft.  Face  your 
account  with  Nature  like  a  man.  For  Nature 
is  a  generous,  though  remorseless,  financier, 
delivering  you  your  just  due  and  exacting  the 

3 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

uttermost  of  your  debt.  Also  Nature  renders 
you  a  daily  accounting. 

And,  at  the  very  beginning,  Nature  writes 
upon  the  tablet  of  your  inner  consciousness  an 
inventory  of  your  strengths  and  of  your  weak- 
nesses, and  lists  there  those  tasks  which  you  are 
best  fitted  to  perform — those  tasks  which  Na- 
ture meant  you  to  perform.  For  Nature  put 
you  here  to  do  something;  you  were  not  born 
to  be  an  ornament. 

First,  then,  learn  your  limitations.  Take 
time  enough  to  think  out  just  what  you  can- 
not do.  This  process  of  elimination  will  soon 
reduce  life's  possibilities  for  you  to  a  few 
things.  Of  these  things  select  the  one  which 
is  nearest  you,  and,  having  selected  it,  put  all 
other  loves  from  you. 

It  is  a  business  maxim  in  my  profession  that 
"  law  is  a  jealous  mistress."  It  is  very  true, 
but  it  is  not  more  true  than  it  is  that  every  other 
calling  in  life  is  a  jealous  mistress.  To  every 
man  his  task  is  the  hardest,  his  situation  the 
most  difficult. 

By  finding  out  one's  limitations  is  not 
meant,  of  course,  what  society  will  permit  you 
to  do,  or  what  men  will  permit  you  to  do, 
but  what  Nature  will  permit  you  to  do.  You 
have  no  other  master  than  Nature.    Nature's 

4 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

limitations  only  are  the  bounds  of  your  suc- 
cess. So  far  as  your  success  is  concerned, 
no  man,  no  set  of  men,  no  society,  not  even 
all  the  world  of  humanity,  is  your  master ;  but 
Nature  is.  "  We  cannot,"  says  Emerson, 
"  bandy  words  with  Natm'e,  or  deal  with  her 
as  we  deal  with  persons." 

" Poeta  nascituVj  non  fit"  is  just  as  appli- 
cable to  lawyers  and  mechanics  and  engineers 
as  to  poets.  More  failures  have  been  caused 
by  the  old  idea  that  a  man  may  make  himself 
what  he  will,  than  by  any  single  half-truth  that 
has  crept  into  our  conmion  speech  and  belief. 
A  man  may  make  himself  what  he  will  within 
the  limitations  Nature  has  set  about  him. 

"  When  I  was  born, 
From  all  the  seas  of  strength 
Fate  filled  a  chalice. 
Saying,  This  be  thy  portion,  child," 

declares  the  Persian  sage.  But  all  that  Hafiz 
means  by  that  is  that  a  Paderewski  shall  not 
attempt  blacksmithing,  or  a  Rothschild  try  car- 
tooning or  sculpture  or  watchmaking,  or  any 
man  undertake  that  for  which  Nature  has  not 
fitted  him. 

Do  we  not  see  instances  every  day  of  men 
made  unhappy  for  life,  and  their  powers  lost 

5 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

to  the  world  by  trying  to  do  that  for  which 
they  have  no  aptitude?  Parents  obeying  the 
attractive  theory  that  any  boy  can  make  him- 
self what  he  pleases  decide  upon  some  ambi- 
tious career  for  him  without  considering  his 
natural  abilities  and  efficiencies.  Usually  some 
calling  of  clamorous  conspicuity  is  selected. 

Twenty  years  ago  the  law  was  the  favorite 
avenue  upon  which  fond  parents  would  thus 
set  the  feet  of  their  offspring;  the  law,  they 
thought,  would  enable  him  better  to  "  make  his 
mark  " — that  is,  to  parade  up  and  down  be- 
fore the  pubhc  eye  and  fill  the  public  ear  with 
declamation.  Even  yet  that  profession  has 
clientless  members,  miserable  in  their  hearts 
over  their  self -consciousness  that  they  are  not 
lawyers  and  never  can  be  lawyers,  who  would 
have  been  useful,  prosperous,  and  happy  if 
they  could  have  been  permitted  to  be  architects 
or  merchants  or  farmers  or  doctors  or  soldiers 
or  sculptors  or  editors  or  what  not. 

One  of  the  cleverest  of  our  present-day 
writers  of  fiction  started  out  to  be  a  lawyer. 
But  he  could  not  keep  his  pen  from  paper 
nor  restrain  that  mysterious  instrument  from 
tracing  sketches  of  character  and  drawing  pic- 
tures of  human  situations.  Very  well!  He 
had  the  courage  to  obey  the  call  of  his  prefer- 

6 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

ences ;  and  to-day,  instead  of  being  an  unskill- 
ful attorney,  he  is  noted  and  notable  in  the 
jDresent-hour  world  of  letters. 

Anthony  Hope  in  England  is  another  il- 
lustration precisely  in  point.  On  the  other 
hand,  Erskine,  who  was  intended  by  his  par- 
ents for  the  army,  was  destined  by  Nature 
for  the  bar.  This  master-advocate  of  all  the 
history  of  English  jurisprudence  felt  it  in  his 
blood  that  he  must  practise  law;  and  so  his 
sword  rusted  while  he  studied  Blackstone. 
Finally,  he  deserted  the  field  for  the  foi-um, 
there  to  become  the  most  illustrious  barrister 
the  United  Kingdom  has  produced. 

I  therefore  emphasize  the  importance  of 
finding  out  what  you  can  do  best  rather  than 
what  either  you  or  your  parents  wish  you 
could  do  best.  For  it  seems  to  me  that  this 
is  getting  very  close  to  the  truth  of  life. 
The  thoughtless  commonplace  that  "  every 
boy  may  be  President "  has  worked  mischief, 
sown  unhappiness,  and  robbed  humanity  of 
useful  workers. 

Every  boy  cannot  be  President,  and,  what 
is  more,  every  boy  ought  not  to  be.  Let  Edi- 
son remain  in  his  laboratory  and  enrich  man- 
kind with  his  wizard  wisdom.  England  would 
have  lost  her  great  explorer  if  Drake  had  tried 

7 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

to  write  plays ;  while  Shakespeare  would  doubt- 
less have  been  sea-sick  on  the  decks  of  the 
Golden  Hind.  Let  Verdi  compose,  and  charm 
the  universal  heart  with  his  witcheries  of 
sound;  let  Cavour  keep  to  his  statesmanship, 
that  a  dismembered  people  may  again  be  made 
one.  Every  man  to  his  calling.  "  Let  the 
shoemaker  stick  to  his  last,"  said  Appelles. 

Ito  might  have  led  the  Japanese  armies  to 
defeat — Oyama  led  them  to  victory.  But  Ito 
created  modern  Japan,  wrote  its  constitution 
and  introduced  those  methods  which  made 
Oyama's  successes  possible.  Each  man  suc- 
ceeded because  he  chose  to  do  what  Nature 
fitted  him  to  do. 

Of  course  you  may  be  fitted  for  more  than 
one  thing.  Ceesar  could  have  equaled  if  not 
surpassed  Cicero  in  mere  oratory  had  he  not 
preferred  to  find,  in  war  and  government,  a 
fame  more  enduring.  But,  if  you  try  all 
things  for  which  you  may  be  equipped  by 
Nature,  j^ou  will  so  scatter  your  energies 
through  the  delta  of  your  aptitudes  that  your 
very  wealth  and  variety  of  gifts  neutralizes 
them  all.  No.  Pick  out  one  of  the  things 
you  can  do  w^ell  and  let  the  others  go.  A 
tree  is  pruned  on  the  same  principle.  Stick  to 
one  thing.    Beware  of  your  versatilities. 

8 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

Your  life's  work  chosen  give  wing  to  your 
imagination.  Behold  yourself  preeminent  in 
your  field  of  effort.  Dream  of  yourself  as  the 
best  civil  engineer  of  your  time,  or  the  sound- 
est banker  or  ablest  merchant.  If  you  are  a 
farmer  fancy  yourself  the  master  of  all  the 
secrets  science  is  daily  discovering  in  this  most 
engaging  of  occupations;  picture  j^ourself  as 
the  man  who  has  accomplished  most  in  the 
realm  of  agriculture. 

Set  for  yourself  the  ideal  of  perfection  in 
your  calling — being  sure  that  it  is  Nature's 
calling.  Then  let  your  dreams  become  beliefs ; 
let  your  imaginings  develop  into  faith.  Com- 
plete the  process  by  resolving  to  make  that 
belief  come  true.  Then  go  ahead  and  make 
it  come  true.  Keep  your  resolution  bright. 
Never  let  it  rust.  Burnish  it  with  work — un- 
tiring, unhasting,  unyielding  work. 

Work — that  is  the  magic  word.  In  these 
four  letters  all  possibilities  are  wrapped  up. 
"  Seek  and  ye  shall  find;  knock  and  it  shall  be 
opened  unto  you."  Or  let  us  paraphrase  the 
sacred  page  and  say — Work  and  you  will  win. 
Work  to  your  ideal.  If  you  never  reach  it — 
and  who  can  achieve  perfection? — you  surely 
will  approach  it. 

Do  not  be  impatient  of  your  progress.  If, 
2  9 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

to  your  own  measurement,  you  seem  to  be 
moving  slowly,  remember  that,  to  the  obser- 
vation of  your  fellow  men,  you  are  making 
substantial  and  satisfactory  advance  and,  to 
the  eye  of  your  rivals,  you  are  proceeding  with 
unreasonable  speed. 

Don't  pay  any  attention  to  how  fast  you 
are  getting  on  but  go  ahead  and  get  on.  Keep 
working.  And  work  with  all  your  might. 
How  wise  the  Bible  is:  "Whatsoever  thy 
hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might." 
And  keep  on  doing  it — persist — persist — per- 
sist. Again  the  Bible:  "  Seest  thou  a  man 
diligent  in  his  business?  he  shall  stand  before 
kings."  Do  not  fear  hard  knocks.  They  are 
no  sign  that  you  will  not  finally  win  the  bat- 
tle. Indeed,  ability  to  endure  in  silence  is 
one  of  the  best  evidences  that  you  will  finally 
prevail. 

Yes,  put  yourself  into  your  work — and  put 
all  of  yourself  into  your  work.  Having  done 
that,  be  content  with  your  effort — do  not  fret. 
If  all  you  do  yields  the  fruit  you  hope  for,  do 
not  fret  while  that  fruit  is  ripening.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  your  labor  comes  to  nothing, 
still  do  not  fret.  A  like  fate  has  fallen  upon 
uncounted  millions  before  you  and  will  come 
to  unnumbered  myriads  after  you.     If  you 

1.0 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

have  done  your  best  you  have  done  better  than 
the  man  who  has  done  more  than  you  but  who 
has  not  done  his  best. 

And  so,  whatever  the  outcome,  start  out  with 
this  rule  and  keep  it  to  the  end.  For  nothing 
wastes  your  powers  so  much  as  apprehension. 
The  hardest  work,  if  done  with  common 
sense,  is  after  all  a  tonic.  But  fear  lest  that 
work  will  not  yield  you  as  much  as  you  wish 
is  a  sort  of  irritating"  cocaine  of  character, 
numbing  and  deadening  all  of  your  powers 
and  at  the  same  time  lashing  your  mind  and 
nerves  with  the  knotted  thongs  of  unhappi- 
ness.  Besides,  fretting  is  so  trivial,  so  little, 
so  commonplace.  Fail  if  you  must,  but  do 
not  be  contemptible. 

He  who  worries  not  only  poisons  the  very 
fountains  of  his  own  strength  but  arouses  in 
the  world's  attitude  toward  him  a  sort  of  sneer- 
ing pity.  So  the  very  first  thing  that  I  have 
to  suggest  to  you  is  that  you  should  be  a  man 
in  all  your  doings  and  throughout  your  whole 
career. 

That  is  it — be  a  man;  a  great,  strong,  will- 
ing, kindly  man — calm  in  the  glory  of  a  fear- 
less heart,  serene  in  your  trust  and  belief  in 
God,  the  Father  of  the  world,  and  so  sure 
of  the  justice  of  His  providence  that  you  go 

11 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

about  your  daily  business  free  from  those 
silly  cares  which  corrode  and  ruin  manhood 
itself. 

Be  a  man — that  is  the  first  and  the  last  rule 
of  the  greatest  success  in  life.  For  the  great- 
est success  in  life  does  not  mean  dollars  heaped 
in  bank-vaults  nor  volumes  written,  nor  rail- 
roads built,  nor  laws  devised,  nor  armies  led. 
No,  the  greatest  success  is  none  of  these.  The 
supreme  success  is  character. 

Pay  no  attention  to  mere  spiteful  criticism, 
but  seek,  as  for  gold  and  precious  stones, 
the  chastening  advice  of  friends.  Do  not  be 
offended  if  your  friends  say  an  unpleasant 
thing  of  you.  And  here  we  are  at  the  Bible 
again:  "  Faithful  are  the  wounds  of  a  friend; 
but  the  kisses  of  an  enemy  are  deceitful." 

These  recurrences  to  what  those  wise  old 
-Hebrews  said  make  one  feel  that  one  is  com- 
mitting a  superfluity  when  one  attempts  to  say 
anything  along  the  line  of  practical  advice, 
since  anything  that  any  man  can  say  is  noth- 
ing more  than  a  very  weak  dilution  of  the 
concentrated  thought  of  the  most  acute  minds 
of  the  greatest  business  people,  the  most  suc- 
cessful material  people — yes,  and  the  most 
idealistic  people — who  ever  lived,  the  ancient, 
the  mysterious,  the  persistent  Jews. 

12 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

This  is  saying  much  for  the  Hebrew  blood 
and  genius;  but  have  not  these  Jews  given  us 
our  moral  laws,  our  spiritual  ideals,  our  sacred 
faith?  Not  only  the  bankers  of  the  world 
are  they,  but  the  formulators  of  the  rules  of 
conduct  between  man  and  man,  and  of  that 
adoring  attitude  which  the  enlightened  mind 
should  always  maintain  toward  the  All-Father. 
The  Jews  are  the  universal  people. 

If  you  like  ethnology,  study  the  Jews. 
Study  the  Germans,  too.  What  peoples  they 
both  are — utterly  unlike,  yet  full  of  the  inspi- 
ration of  thoughts  and  deeds  and  persistence. 
Persistence — there  is  a  word  of  might  it  will 
pay  you  to  ponder  over. 

Persistence — "  stick-to-it-ive-ness."  It  is  a 
quality  better  than  genius.  The  Germans  have 
that  quality  preeminently,  and  other  whole- 
some and  masterful  characteristics  as  well. 
They  are  domestic  yet  warlike,  industrial  yet 
artistic,  experts  in  commerce  yet  disciples  of 
science.     Study  the  Germans! 

Though  you  must  not  fear  criticism,  do  not 
disregard  it.  You  may  find  a  suggestion  in 
it,  and  thus  your  enemy  will  become  your 
counselor.  But  applause !  Fly  from  the  desire 
for  it  as  from  pestilence.  It  will  weaken  you 
infinitely.    And  to  a  strong  man  achievement 

13 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

is  the  only  applause  of  value — the  making  of 
his  point. 

Many  years  ago  I  heard  this  story  of  Bis- 
marck. If  it  is  not  true,  it  ought  to  be.  And 
if  it  is  not  true  specifically,  it  is  true  abstractly. 
He  had  just  returned  from  one  of  his  notable 
diplomatic  victories  at  the  beginning  of  his 
career;  great  crowds  had  assembled  for  a 
speech. 

Bismarck  heard  it  all,  but  smoked  and  drank 
his  beer  and  gave  no  sign.  His  secretary 
rushed  in  with  excitement,  and  said: 

"  You  must  go  out  and  acknowledge  the 
applause  of  the  people,  and  make  a  speech." 

"  And  why,"  said  Bismarck;  "  why  do  they 
want  me  to  speak;  why  are  they  applauding 
me?" 

"  Because  of  your  great  success  in  these  ne- 
gotiations," said  the  secretary. 

"  Humph!  "  said  Bismarck,  "  suppose  I  had 
failed?  "  and  turned  back  to  his  smoking  and 
his  beer. 

Bismarck,  you  see,  was  too  great  for  ap- 
plause. 

I  have  quoted  the  Bible  so  frequently  that  it 
suggests  remarks  upon  one  of  the  great  influ- 
ences of  life — the  influence  of  books.  Like 
every  other  power,  this  should  be  exercised 

14 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

with  judgment.  Let  us  indulge  no  immoder- 
ate expectations  of  the  results  of  mere  read- 
ing. Reading  is,  at  best,  only  second-hand 
information  and  inspiration.  It  is  not  the 
number  of  books  a  man  has  read  that  makes 
him  available  in  the  world  of  business. 

What  the  world  wants  is  power ;  how  to  get 
that  is  the  question. 

Books  are  one  source  of  power;  but,  neces- 
sarily, books  are  artificial.  That  is  why  we 
cannot  dispense  with  teachers  in  our  schools, 
professors  in  our  colleges,  preachers  in  our 
pulpits,  orators  on  the  political  platform. 
There  is  no  real  way  of  teaching  but  by  word 
of  mouth.  There  is  no  real  instruction  but 
experience. 

You  see  that  the  German  universities  have 
come  back  to  the  lecture  method  exclusively 
— or  did  they  ever  depart  from  it?  And  they 
know  what  they  are  about,  those  profound 
old  German  scholars.  They  have  created 
scientific  scholarship.  They  have  made  what 
we  once  thought  history  absurd,  and  have 
rewi'itten  the  story  of  the  world. 

But  all  this  is  obiter  dicta.  The  point  is 
that  they  know  the  value  of  books  as  a  source 
of  power  and  learning,  and  they  know  their 
limitations,  too.     So  does  the  public.     Public 

15 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

speaking  will  never  decline.  It  is  Nature's 
method  of  instruction.  You  will  listen  with 
profit  to  a  speech  which  you  cannot  drive  your 
mind  to  read. 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  largest 
wisdom  dictates  conservatism  in  mere  read- 
ing. Read,  of  course,  and  deeply,  widely, 
thoroughly.  But  let  Discrimination  select 
your  books.  Choose  these  intellectual  com- 
panions as  carefully  as  you  pick  your  per- 
sonal comrades.  Read  only  "  tonic  books," 
as  Goethe  calls  them.  Yes,  read,  and  abun- 
dantly— but  don't  stop  there.  Don't  imagine 
that  books,  of  themselves,  will  make  you  wise. 
Reading,  alone,  will  not  render  you  eiFective. 

Mingle  with  the  people — I  mean  the  com- 
mon people.  Talk  with  them.  Do  not  talk 
to  them  but  talk  with  them,  and  get  them 
to  talk  with  you.  Who  that  has  had  the  ex- 
perience would  exchange  the  wit  and  wisdom 
of  the  "  hands  "  at  the  "  threshings,"  during 
the  half  hour  of  rest  after  eating,  for  the 
studied  smartness  of  the  salon  or  even  the  con- 
versation of  the  learned?  But  think  not  to 
get  this  by  going  out  to  them  and  saying, 
"  Talk  up  now."  The  farm-hand,  the  railroad 
laborer,  the  working  man  of  every  kind,  does 
not  wear  his  heart  on  his  sleeve. 

16 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

Mark  the  idioms  in  Shakespeare.  He  spoke 
the  words  and  uttered  the  thoughts  of  hostlers 
as  well  as  of  kings.  Observe  the  common  lan- 
guage in  the  Bible.  It  is  curious  to  note  the 
number  of  the  pithy  expressions  daily  appear- 
ing among  us  which  are  repetitions  of  what  the 
people  were  saying  in  the  time  of  Isaiah. 

All  who  love  Robert  Burns  have  their  affec- 
tion for  him  rooted  in  the  human  quality  of 
him ;  and  Burns's  oneness  with  the  rest  of  us  is 
revealed  by  the  earthiness  of  his  words.  They 
smell  of  home.  They  have  the  fragrance  of 
trees  and  soil.  We  know  that  they  were  not 
coined  by  Burns  the  genius,  but  repeated  from 
the  mouths  of  plain  men  and  women  by  Burns 
the  reporter.  It  is  so  with  all  literature  that 
lives. 

Mingle  with  the  people,  therefore;  be  one 
of  them.  Who  are  you  that  you  should  not 
be  one  of  them?  Who  is  any  one  that  he 
should  not  be  one  of  the  people?  Their  com- 
mon thought  is  necessarily  higher  and  better 
than  the  thought  of  any  man.  This  is  mathe- 
matical. 

And  the  people,  too,  are  young,  eternally 
young.  They  are  the  source  of  all  power,  not 
politically  speaking  now,  but  ethnically,  even 
commercially,  speaking.    The  successful  man- 

17 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

ager  of  any  business  will  tell  you  that  he  takes 
as  careful  an  inventory  of  public  opinion  as  he 
does  of  the  material  items  of  his  merchandise. 
A  capable  merchant  told  me  that  he  makes  it  a 
point  to  mingle  with  the  crowds. 

"  Not,"  said  he,  "  to  hear  what  they  have  to 
say,  for  you  catch  only  a  scrap  or  a  sentence 
here  and  there;  but  to  go  up  against  them. 
Somehow  or  other  you  get  their  drift  that 
way.  Anyhow  I  am  conscious  that  this  helps 
me  to  understand  what  the  people  need  and 
want.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  commercial 
instinct;  and  contact  with  the  people  keeps 
this  fresh  and  true." 

We  have  come  to  that  state  of  enlighten- 
ment where  the  people  want  to  know  not  only 
that  they  are  getting  the  best  goods  or  best 
service,  but  that  the  business  which  supplies 
either  is  run  all  right.  Who  can  doubt  that 
in  the  universal  mind  there  is  a  question  as  to 
the  moral  element  in  American  business? 

This  is  nothing  but  the  composite  conscience 
of  the  American  people  demanding  that  Amer- 
ican business  shall  not  only  be  conducted  ably, 
but  also  that  it  shall  be  conducted  honestly.  It 
is  a  force  which  you  must  take  into  account. 
It  will  be  a  glorious  asset  for  you  if  you  will 
pay  enough  attention  to  it  to  understand  it. 

18 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

But  you  must  mingle  with  the  people  your- 
self in  order  to  comprehend  this  source  of 
power.  Do  not  sit  alone  in  your  room  and 
read  about  the  people ;  that  is  no  way  to  learn 
about  them. 

Remember  that  no  workable  constitution 
was  ever  written  exclusively  by  scholars.  Re- 
call the  ordinance  for  the  government  of 
Carolina  devised  by  the  philosopher  Locke. 
It  failed;  yet  it  reads  well.  Time  and  again 
theorists  with  highest  purpose  and  broadest 
book  wisdom  have  formulated  laws  for  the 
good  of  mankind  which  would  not  work. 

Most  statutes  that  live  and  operate  have  had 
their  origins  among  men  of  the  soil  as  well  as 
men  of  the  study.  The  point  I  am  making  is 
that  learning  and  accomplishments  will  do  no 
good  if  you  do  not  connect  them  with  the 
people. 

Is  not  this  why  so  many  reformers  retire 
disappointed — men  and  women  of  finest  excel- 
lencies of  purpose  and  practical  and  fruitful 
thought — they  have  insisted  in  projecting 
their  reforms  from  office  or  parlor  upon  the 
masses  without  knowing  those  masses?  It  is 
as  impossible  for  the  wisest  man  to  be  a  states- 
man by  confining  himself  to  his  study  and 
his  weighty  volumes  and  his  careful  abstract 

19 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

thinking,  as  it  is  to  be  a  chemist  by  reading 
about  chemistry. 

The  laboratory,  the  test-tube,  the  actual 
contact  with  the  real  materials  and  forces  in 
nature,  are  essential  to  the  scientist  of  matter. 
This  is  much  more  true  of  the  art  of  govern- 
ment. No  man  ever  lived  so  wise  that  asso- 
ciation with  the  millions  would  not  enrich 
his  wisdom  mightily.  And  thus,  page  after 
page,  we  might  go  on  pointing  out  the  value 
of  contact  with  the  people,  whom,  after  all,  it 
ought  to  be  your  highest  purpose  to  serve  in 
some  way. 

For  in  all  your  doings  never  forget  that, 
build  you  ever  so  cunningly,  j^oung  man,  you 
have  builded  in  vain  if  the  work  of  your 
hands  has  not  helped  humanity.  Every  occu- 
pation, trade,  business,  employment  has  its 
reason  in  service  of  the  people. 

Grocery  man,  harness-maker,  carpenter; 
doctor,  lawyer,  or  railway  man ;  farmer,  miner, 
or  journalist;  actor  on  the  stage,  teacher  in  the 
school-room,  preacher  in  the  pulpit — all  your 
effort  is  for  the  service  of  the  people,  the  min- 
istering to  their  needs,  the  enlightenment  of 
their  minds,  the  uplifting  of  their  souls.  And 
I  insist,  therefore,  that  you  shall  know  with 
the  knowledge  of  kinship  this  humanity  with 

20 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

whom  you  are  to  work  and  for  whom  you  are 
to  work. 

Spend  some  time  with  Nature,  too.  The 
people  and  Nature — they  alone  contain  the 
elemental  forces.  They  alone  are  unartificial, 
unexhausted.  You  will  be  surprised  at  the 
strength  you  will  get  from  a  day  in  the  woods. 
I  do  not  mean  physical  strength  alone,  but 
mental  vigor  and  spiritual  insight. 

The  old  fable  of  Antaeus  is  so  true  that  it 
is  almost  literally  true.  Every  time  he  touched 
the  earth  when  thrown,  that  common  mother 
of  us  all  gave  him  new  strength;  and,  rising, 
he  came  to  the  combat  as  fresh  as  when  he 
began. 

Learn  to  know  the  trees ;  make  friends  with 
them.  I  know  that  this  counsel  will  appear 
far-fetched  if  you  have  never  cultivated  the 
companionship  of  the  woods.  But  try  it,  and 
keep  on  trying  it,  and  you  will  find  that  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  making  friends  with  the 
trees.  They  will  come  to  have  a  sort  of  per- 
sonality for  you. 

No  doubt  this  is  all  in  your  mind.  No  mat- 
ter, it  is  good  for  you.  It  makes  you  more 
natural;  that  means  that  you  are  more  simple, 
kindly,  and  truthful.  What  is  more  soothing 
and  restorative  than  to  stand  quite  still  in  field 

21 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

or  forest  and  listen  to  the  thousand  mingled 
sounds  that  make  up  that  wondrous  melody 
which  Nature  is  always  playing  on  the  num- 
berless strings  of  her  golden  harp.  Learn  the 
peace  which  that  music  brings  to  you. 

In  short,  cultivate  Nature,  get  close  to  Na- 
ture. Try  to  get  Nature  to  give  you  what 
she  has  for  you  as  earnestly  as  you  try  to 
get  what  you  want  in  business ;  and  your  days 
and  nights  will  be  glorified  with  a  beauty  and 
strength  the  existence  of  which  you  would  have 
denied  before  you  experienced  their  blessings. 

But,  of  course,  jou  must  work  for  the  bene- 
fits you  get  from  Nature,  just  as  you  must 
work  for  everything  worth  having.  You  can- 
not quit  your  office  and  say,  "  Now  I  shall  take 
a  ten-minutes'  walk  in  the  park  and  commune 
with  Nature."  Nature  is  not  to  be  courted  in 
any  such  way.  She  does  not  fling  her  favors 
at  your  feet — not  until  you  have  won  her 
utterly.  Then  all  of  the  wealth  and  power 
which  Nature  has  for  those  who  love  her  are 
yours  in  a  profuse  and  exhaustless  opulence. 

There  is  nothing  so  important  for  a  young 
man,  especially  a  young  American,  as  to  re- 
solve not  to  wear  himself  out  nervously  and 
physically.  Take  stated  vacations,  therefore. 
I  should  advise  every  young  man  who  expects 

22 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

to  run  a  long  race  to  resolve,  after  he  has  estab- 
lished himself,  that  he  will  take  one,  and,  if 
possible,  two  months'  period  of  absolute  vaca- 
tion every  year.  Let  him  make  this  a  part  of 
his  business,  just  as  he  makes  sleeping  a  part 
of  his  business  every  day. 

What  matter  if  another  lawyer  gets  the 
case  that  would  have  come  to  you,  or  another 
real-estate  dealer  secures  the  corner  lot  on 
which  you  have  had  your  eye,  or  another  opera- 
tor makes  the  profitable  deal  which  would  have 
given  you  fame  and  fortune? 

You  have  obtained  and  preserved  that  which 
they  most  probably  have  lost.  You  have  made 
an  investment  in  Youth.  You  have  purchased 
power.  You  have  taken  stock  in  length  of 
years.  You  have  equipped  yourself  with  new 
nerves,  a  rested  heart,  a  refreshed  brain,  a 
hearty  stomach,  and  a  sane  mind  in  a  sound 
body. 

And  you  have  done  more  than  all  this :  You 
have  restored  your  perspective.  You  have  cor- 
rected your  vision,  so  that  you  see  things  in 
their  just  proportion.  One  reason  why  men 
waste  energy  so  prodigally  is  that  their  in- 
tense pursuit  of  their  business  makes  them 
lose  all  sense  of  the  proportion  of  things. 
That  which  is  of  little  consequence  appears,  to 

23 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

the  distorted  vision,  of  immense  importance; 
and  as  much  energy  is  wasted  in  trifles  as 
should  be  expended  on  great  affairs.  This 
process  keeps  up  until  really  first-class  men 
are  reduced  to  very  small  men. 

Let  a  man  go  each  year  to  the  everlasting 
mountains ;  to  the  solitude  of  the  •  ancient 
forests;  to  the  eternal  ocean  with  its  mani- 
festation of  power  and  repose.  Let  him  sit 
by  its  solemn  shore  listening  to  it  sing  that 
song  which  for  a  million  years  before  our  civ- 
ilization was  thought  of  it  had  been  singing, 
and  which  for  a  million  years  after  our  civili- 
zation has  become  merely  a  line  in  history  it 
will  continue  to  sing,  and  he  will  realize  how 
unimportant  are  the  things  which  only  a  few 
weeks  before  seemed  to  him  of  such  vast  mo- 
ment. Perhaps  the  words  of  the  old  Khayyam 
will  come  to  him: 
*'And  fear  not  lest  Existence,  closing  your 

Account  and  mine,  should  know  the  like  no  more ; 

I'he  Eternal  Saki  from  that  Bowl  has  pour''d 

Millions  of  Bubbles  like  us,  and  will  pour. " 

Or, 

"  When  You  and  I  behind  the  Veil  are  passed, 
Oh !  but  the  long,  long  while  the  World  shall  last. 
Which  of  our  Coming  and  Departure  heeds 
As  the  sea's  self  should  heed  a  pebble  cast.*" 
24 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

Then  you  will  come  back  to  your  work  and 
see  things  in  their  proper  dimensions.  You 
will  expend  your  energy  on  things  that  re- 
quire it,  and  you  will  smile  at  the  things  that 
do  not  deserve  your  attention,  and  pass  them 
by.  You  will  substitute  duty  for  ambition, 
and  you  will  go  your  way  with  sanity  for 
perhaps  ten  months.  Then  you  will  need 
again  the  elemental  lesson  of  the  forest,  the 
mountain,  or  the  sea. 

I  do  not  mean  that  you  shall  take  a  vacation 
until  you  have  deserved  it.  What  right  have 
you  to  rest  before  you  have  labored — before 
you  have  earned  a  thread  that  clothes  you  or 
a  mouthful  that  nourishes  you.  There  are  men 
whose  whole  lives  are  a  vacation.  These  words 
are  not  for  them.  From  my  viewpoint,  such 
men  might  as  well  be  dead.  The  men  upon 
whom  I  am  urging  the  wisdom  of  taking 
periods  for  recuperation  are  those  who  have 
been  pulling  with  the  team  and  keeping  their 
traces  taut.  And  I  assume  that  you  who  read 
are  one  of  these  worth-while  men.  Very  well ! 
I  want  you  to  last  a  long  time. 

On  this  subject,  many  is  the  talk  I  have  had 

with  friends  who  are  business  men.    "  Well," 

my  business  friend  has  said,  "  I  just  cannot 

get  away  this  summer.     Next  summer  I  will 

3  25 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

go  away,  but  I  cannot  go  away  this  summer. 
You  see,  I  have  a  '  deal '  which  I  am  about 
to  close;  it  demands  my  personal  attention. 
It  would  be  treason  to  my  business  to  leave 
this  summer." 

Yes,  quite  true,  no  doubt.  But  so  has  Na- 
ture a  "  deal  "  on  with  this  same  business  man; 
and  it  will  be  treason  to  Nature  if  he  does 
not  go  away  and  let  Nature's  ministers  attend 
him.  If  he  has  got  to  be  false  to  his  business 
or  to  Nature,  he  had  better  be  false  to 
the  former.  It  is  a  fine  thing  to  be  true  to 
one's  business.  But  be  sure  that  you  are  really 
true  to  your  business;  and  that  means  that, 
first  of  all,  you  shall  look  to  your  health. 
Your  business  demands  that.  Good  health  is 
good  "  business." 

I  knew  a  business  man  who  was  so  true  to 
his  business  that  he  was  unfaithful  to  himself. 
The  machinery  of  his  superb  mind  had  been 
running  at  highest  speed  for  ten  months.  It 
needed  a  rest — oil  on  the  heated  bearings,  a 
reburnishing  of  the  soiled  steel,  a  rest  from  the 
high  tension.  He  would  have  given  just  such 
care  to  an  automobile,  or  an  engine,  or  any 
inanimate  mechanism.  He  would  have  given 
much  greater  care  to  his  horse. 

But  did  he  give  it  to  himself?  No.  He  had 
26 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

a  "deal"  on  of  large  proportions;  that  "  deal  " 
must  be  consummated  before  attending  to  the 
mind  and  body  that  put  it  through.  So  the 
lever  was  pulled  back  another  notch;  the  ma- 
chine was  driven  to  its  highest  burst  of  speed 
and  power,  and  the  "  deal "  was  a  success. 

Mark  now  what  followed.  The  next  day  this 
splendid  man  did  not  feel  very  well — a  head- 
ache. And  on  the  following  day  there  was  an 
eternal  end  to  all  his  "  deals."  I  do  not  call 
that  good  business.  Therefore,  my  friend,  the 
sea,  the  mountains,  the  forests;  therefore  Na- 
ture, with  her  medicine  for  body  and  mind  and 
soul. 

"  Turn  yourself  out  to  pasture,"  said  a  wise 
old  country  doctor  to  an  exhausted  city  man. 
Certainly,  that's  the  thing  to  do — "  turn  your- 
self out  to  pasture." 

Singular  advice  for  young  men,  you  will 
say,  this  counseling  of  restraint,  calmness,  and 
the  husbanding  of  his  powers.  Yes;  but  I 
would  prevent  you  from  exhausting  yourself. 
No  nervous  prostration  at  forty;  no  arrested 
development  at  fifty;  no  mental  vacuity  at 
fifty -five.  Too  many  Americans  cease  to  count 
after  middle  life.  They  have  wasted  their  am- 
munition and  are  sent  to  the  rear — there  is  no 
longer  use  for  them  on  the  firing-line.    Youth 

27 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

is  so  strong  that  it  wastes  power  like  a  million- 
aire of  vitality.  But  you  will  need  all  this  dis- 
sipated energy  later  on — every  ounce  of  it. 

And  so,  while  I  would  have  you  labor  to  the 
last  limit  of  your  strength  while  you  are  about 
your  work,  I  would  also  have  you  regain  the 
strength  thus  consumed.  I  would  have  you  let 
Nature  fill  up  your  empty  batteries.  Hence 
the  suggestion  of  vacations,  a  level  mind,  and 
books  of  serenity. 

While  you  do  work,  pour  your  full  strength 
into  every  blow;  but  having  done  your  best  do 
not  spoil  it  by  lying  awake  over  it.  No  half- 
heartedness  in  your  task,  however.  If  you  try 
to  save  yourself  while  you  are  about  your  busi- 
ness— if  you  "  try  to  do  things  easy  " — you 
will  neither  work  well  nor  rest  well  nor  do 
anything  else  well. 

I  know  there  are  those  who  cannot,  for 
long,  quit  work — those  who  "  have  their  noses 
to  the  grindstone,"  to  borrow  one  of  those 
picture-sentences  of  the  people.  In  the  far  off 
end  to  which  evolution  tends,  civilization  will 
doubtless  reach  the  point  where  every  human 
being  may  have  his  solid  month  of  play,  re- 
pose, and  recuperation — though  this  cannot 
be,  of  course,  while  nation  competes  with  na- 
tion.    A  universal  industrial  agreement  alone 

28 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

can  compass  that  happy  end.  And  do  we 
not  here  perceive,  afar  off,  one  of  the  vast 
and  glorious  tasks  for  the  statesmen  of  the 
future  ? 

Meanwhile,  if  every  man  may  not  have  an 
entire  season  of  holiday,  he  may  have  every 
day  his  hour  of  fun  and  rest.  For  every  man 
that,  at  least,  is  possible.  And,  too,  he  whom 
necessity  drives  hardest  owns — absolutely  owns 
— for  himself  one  day  in  seven.  Not  so  bad 
after  all,  is  it?  Not  the  ideal  condition,  but 
still  quite  tolerable.  Fifty-two  days  in  three 
hundred  and  sixty-five,  nearly  two  months  in 
the  year,  already  given  every  man  by  the  usage 
of  our  Christian  civilization  for  the  purpose 
of  "  rest  from  all  his  work  ";  and  with  divine 
example  encouraging  and  instructing  him  in 
its  use. 

A  man  can  get  along  on  these  two  months 
distributed  at  the  intervals  of  one  in  every 
seven  days.  He  can  get  along,  that  is,  if  he 
really  rests — really  gives  himself  up  to  the  sane 
joy  of  normal  repose.  The  humblest  toiler, 
even  in  our  greatest  cities,  can  find  physical 
renewal  and  soul's  upliftment  in  forest,  at 
river's  side,  or  on  the  shore  of  lake  or  ocean — 
thanks  to  rapid  transit  and  cheap  fares. 

So  let  us  not  get  to  pitying  ourselves — we 
29 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

are  pretty  well  circumstanced  for  the  alterna- 
tion of  work  and  play,  even  in  our  state  of 
partial  development.  It  is  for  us  to  use  the 
opportunity  already  afforded  us;  and,  speak- 
ing by  and  large,  ought  we  not  to  deserve  more 
by  using,  without  waste  or  worse  than  waste, 
what  we  already  have?  Is  there  not  sound 
philosophy  in  the  legend  which  Mr.  Lewis  tells 
us  was  inscribed  on  the  headboard  of  Jack 
King,  deceased:  "  Life  ain't  in  holding  a  good 
hand,  but  in  playing  a  poor  hand  well"? 

JNIy  suggestion  of  one  or  two  months'  outing 
in  addition  to  our  fifty-two  Sundays  and  sev- 
eral holidays  is  to  those  who  have  poured  out 
in  brain-work  and  nervous  strain  more  than 
the  system  can  possibly  replenish  except  by  a 
period  devoted  exclusively  to  the  manufacture 
of  force  to  replace  that  which  has  been  un- 
naturally expended.  There  are  men  who  toil 
night  and  day.  Mostly  they  are  young  men 
establishing  their  business  or  getting  their 
"  start." 

I  know  many  young  men  who  work  twelve 
and  even  fourteen  hours  every  day,  and  keep 
it  up  the  year  round.  One  of  the  greatest 
merchants  of  my  acquaintance  worked  from 
five  o'clock  in  the  morning  until  twelve  and 
one  o'clock  at  night,  and  then  slept  in  his  little 

30 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

store.  He  was  just  building  up  his  business. 
We  all  know  men  who  literally  will  not  stop 
work  while  awake,  and  when  their  task  is  near 
them.  Such  men  must  go  away  from  their 
business  and  let  Nature  work  on  them  awhile. 

Have  your  doctor  look  you  over  every  six 
months,  no  matter  how  well  you  feel — or 
oftener,  if  he  thinks  best.  Have  your  regular 
physician.  Pick  out  a  good  one,  and,  espe- 
cially, a  man  congenial  to  yourself.  Make 
him  your  friend  as  well  as  medical  adviser. 
The  true  doctor  is  a  marvelous  person. 

How  astonishing  the  accurate  knowledge  of 
the  accomplished  physician!  How  miracle- 
like the  dainty  and  beneficent  skill  of  the  mod- 
ern surgeon.  The  peculiar  ability  of  a  great 
diagnostician  amounts  to  divination.  And  he, 
whom  Nature  has  fitted  for  this  noble  pro- 
fession, is  endowed  with  a  sympathy  for  you 
and  an  intuitive  understanding  of  you  very 
much  akin  to  the  peculiar  sixth  sense  of  wom- 
an— that  strange  power  by  which  she  "  knows 
and  understands." 

Consult  your  doctor,  therefore.  Be  careful 
of  medicines  he  does  not  prescribe.  The  most 
innocent  drug  is  a  veiled  force,  a  compound  of 
hidden  powers — the  system  a  delicate  intricacy 
whose  condition  may  be  different  every  day. 

31 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

The  neurosis  of  our  American  life  is  seducing 
too  many  of  our  best  and  busiest  men  to  the 
use  of  chemicals,  mixtures,  nostrums,  pick-me- 
ups,  etc.,  which  make  nerves  and  brain  utter 
brave  falsehoods  of  a  strength  that  is  not  theirs. 

Your  doctor  ^von't  let  you  do  this — he  will 
stay  your  unconsciously  suicidal  hand.  If 
your  machinery  is  out  of  order,  he  will  tell  you 
so,  and  do  what  is  necessary  to  repair  it.  He 
will  comfort  and  reassure  you,  too,  and  admin- 
ister to  the  mind  a  medicine  as  potent  as  pow- 
der or  liquid.  But  you  will  get  no  false  sym- 
pathy from  him.  If  you  have  nothing  the 
matter  with  you,  yet  think  you  have,  your  doc- 
tor will  take  you  by  the  collar  of  your  coat, 
stand  you  on  yoiu'  feet,  and  bid  you  be  a 
man.  So  don't  dose  yourself.  Be  a  faithful 
guardian  of  the  treasures  Nature  gave  you. 

Returning  now  to  reading:  You  are  not  to 
neglect  books.  They  must  be  read.  If  you  are 
a  professional  man  they  must  be  more  than 
read;  they  must  be  studied,  absorbed,  made  a 
part  of  your  intellectual  being.  I  am  not 
despising  the  accumulated  learning  of  the 
past.  jNIatthew  Arnold,  in  his  "  Literature  and 
Dogma,"  quite  makes  this  point.  What  I  am 
speaking  of  is  miscellaneous  reading. 

After  a  while  one  wearies  of  the  endless 
32 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

repetition,  the  "  damnable  iteration  "  contained 
in  the  great  mass  of  books.  You  will  finally 
come  to  care  greatly  for  the  Bible,  Shake- 
speare, and  Burns.  Compared  with  these  most 
others  are  "  twice-told  tales "  indeed.  Of 
course  one  must  read  the  great  scientific  pro- 
ductions. They  are  an  addition  to  positive 
knowledge,  and  are  a  thing  quite  apart  from 
ordinary  literature. 

My  recommendation  of  the  Bible  is  not 
alone  because  of  its  spiritual  or  religious  in- 
fluences; I  am  advising  it  from  the  material 
and  even  the  business  view-point.  By  far  the 
keenest  wisdom  in  literature  is  in  the  Bible, 
and  is  put  in  terms  so  apt  and  condensed,  too, 
that  their  very  brevity  proves  its  inspiration — • 
is  an  inspiration  to  you. 

Carry  the  Bible  with  you,  if  for  nothing 
else  than  as  a  matter  of  literary  relaxation. 
The  tellers  of  the  Bible  stories  tell  the  stories 
and  stop.  "  He  builded  him  a  city  " — "  he 
smote  the  Philistines  " — "  he  took  her  to  his 
mother's  tent."  You  are  not  wearied  to  death 
by  the  details.  Go  into  any  audience  addressed 
by  a  public  speaker,  and  j^ou  will  perceive  that 
his  hearers'  interest  depends  on  whether  he 
is  getting  to  the  point.  "  Well,  why  doesn't 
he  get  to  the  point,"  is  the  common  expression 

33 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

in  public  assemblages.     The  Bible  "  gets  to 
the  point." 

And  it  has  something  for  everybody.  If 
you  are  a  politician,  or  even  a  statesman,  no 
matter  how  astute  you  are,  you  can  read  with 
profit  several  times  a  year  the  career  of  David, 
one  of  the  cleverest  politicians  and  greatest 
statesmen  who  ever  lived.  If  you  are  a  busi- 
ness man,  the  proverbs  of  Solomon  will  tone 
you  up  like  mountain-air. 

A  young  woman  should  read  Ruth.  A  man 
of  practical  life,  a  great  man,  but  purely  a 
man  of  the  world,  once  said  to  me:  "  If  I  could 
enact  one  statute  for  all  the  young  women  of 
America,  it  would  be  that  each  of  them  should 
read  the  book  of  Ruth  once  a  month."  But 
the  limits  and  purpose  of  this  paper  do  not 
permit  a  dissertation  on  the  Bible. 

Shakespeare,  of  course,  you  cannot  get 
along  without.  I  shall  say  no  more  about 
him  here;  for  if  anything  at  all  is  said  about 
Shakespeare  (or  the  Bible),  it  ought  to  take 
up  an  entire  paper  at  least.  "  Don't  read  any- 
body's commentaries  on  Shakespeare — don't 
read  mine;  read  Shakes j)eare,'''  was  the  final 
advice  of  Richard  Grant  White,  one  of  the 
ripest  of  the  world's  commentators  on  this  uni- 
versal poet. 

34 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

From  the  Bible  and  Shakespeare  roads  lead 
down  among  books  but  little  lower  in  elevation 
and  outlook.  Of  these  the  essays  of  Emerson 
furnish  a  noble  example ;  and  the  poems  of  the 
Concord  philosopher  are  the  wisdom  of  the 
ancients  stated  in  terms  of  Americanism.  I 
would  have  every  yomig  man  spend  half  an 
hour  over  each  page  of  our  American  Think- 
er's essays  on  Character,  Manners,  Power,  and 
Self-reliance. 

Indeed,  wherever  you  turn,  among  the  pages 
of  our  Sage,  you  find  no  desert  place,  but 
always  a  very  forest  of  thought,  tumultuous 
and  vibrant  with  fancy  and  suggestion,  sweet 
and  wholesome  with  living  truth  and  all  help- 
fulness. You  can  form  no  better  habit  than 
to  read  a  page  or  two  of  Emerson  every  night. 

Take  Emerson  as  an  example;  read  books 
of  that  sort — books  that  are  kin  to  the  Bible 
and  Shakespeare.  There  is  no  excuse  for 
your  poisoning  your  time  with  idle  books  or 
low  books  or  transient  books — moth  volumes 
that  flutter  an  instant  in  the  light  and  in  an 
instant  die.  For  the  great  books  are  enter- 
taining. If  you  want  excitement,  Plutarch's 
Lives  furnish  you  thrilling  narrative  fiction 
cannot  surpass — and  undying  inspiration  be- 
sides. 

35 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

The  great  novels,  too,  have  in  them  all 
the  blood  and  battle-ax  the  stoutest  nerve  can 
crave,  all  the  incidents  of  love,  self-sacrifice, 
and  gentle  invention  the  tenderest  heart  can 
need.  Yes,  certainly:  Read  books  that  come 
to  stay — the  kind  of  books  you  would  like  to 
be  as  a  man. 

The  Rubaiyat  would  deserve  mention  but 
for  the  danger  of  misunderstanding  its  mes- 
sage. Rightly  read  Omar  Khayyam's  lesson 
is  serenity  and  poise  and  that  power  and  hap- 
piness which  come  from  these.  The  disciple 
of  the  tent-maker  is  not  apt  to  lose  his  bear- 
ings. He  no  longer  regards  to-day  as  eter- 
nity, no  longer  looks  at  the  world  and  the 
universe  from  himself  as  a  center.  Reject  the 
Persian  poet's  apotheosis  of  wine,  absorb  his 
philosophy  of  calmness,  and  you  will  do  your 
duty  regardless  of  consequences.  And  that  is 
the  chief  thing,  is  it  not? 

Do  your  duty,  have  the  courage  of  your 
thought,  and  walk  off  with  the  old  fatalist's 
verse  soothing  your  soul  and  brain,  and  let  the 
disturbed  ones  clamor.  The  clamor  will  cease 
in  time  and  turn  to  applause.  And  whether 
it  does  or  not  is  a  matter  of  absolutely  no  im- 
portance if  you  have  done  right. 

There  is  nothing  which  will  more  conserve 
36 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

the  nervous  forces  of  any  serious-minded 
young  man,  nothing  which  will  give  him  so 
much  of  that  composure  of  mind  and  necessary 
concentration  of  powers,  as  the  resolution  to  do 
his  best  and  let  it  go  at  that,  whether  the  world 
applaud,  or  laugh,  or  rage.  Be  true  to  your 
deed,  whatever  it  may  have  been,  and  if  the 
deed  was  true,  the  end  must  necessarily  be  sat- 
isfactory. 

Burns,  of  course,  we  must  read.  We  must 
have  him  to  keep  the  milk  of  human  kindness 
flowing  in  our  veins — to  keep  sweet  and  sincere 
and  loving.  The  good  that  you  get  from 
Burns  cannot  be  analyzed.  You  cannot  say, 
"  I  have  read  Burns,  and  find  in  him  of  wis- 
dom so  many  grains,  of  humor  so  many  grains, 
of  beauty  of  expression  so  many  grains,"  and 
so  forth  and  so  on  to  the  end. 

It  is  the  general  effect  of  Burns  that  is 
so  valuable,  so  indispensable.  Read  a  little 
bit  of  Burns  every  day,  and  you  will  find  it 
very  hard  to  be  unkind;  you  are  conscious 
that  you  are  more  human.  A  mellow  and 
delightful  sympathy  for  your  fellow  man — 
aye,  and  for  all  living  things — warms  your 
heart.  And  this  human  quality  is  more  valu- 
able than  all  the  riches  of  all  the  lords  of 
wealth. 

37 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

At  all  cost  keep  your  capacity  for  human 
sjnnpathy. 

The  sharp,  hard  processes  of  our  strictly 
business  civilization  tend  to  regulate  even  our 
sympathies  into  a  system.  It  is  as  if  we  should 
say  each  day,  "  I  have  time  to-day  for  five 
minutes  of  himian  sympathy,"  and  promptly 
push  the  button  of  our  stop-watch  when  the 
second-hand  shows  that  the  time  has  expired. 
Burns  is  the  best  corrective  of  this  that  I 
know — the  best,  that  is,  outside  of  the  Bible 
itself. 

Indeed  the  more  one  thinks  about  it  the 
clearer  it  is  that  we  might  throw  away  all  other 
books  but  the  Bible,  and  still  have  all  our  men- 
tal and  moral  needs  ministered  to  by  those  who 
through  all  time  have  thought  and  felt  most 
highly;  for  the  Bible  is  the  record  of  the  lofti- 
est of  all  human  expression,  not  to  mention 
its  divine  origin. 

Put  your  Bible,  your  Shakespeare,  your 
Burns  in  your  bundle  when  you  go  for  a 
journey,  and  you  are  intellectually  and  spirit- 
ually equipped. 

Let  a  man  have  the  courage  of  his  thought 
— I  repeat  it.  Courage  is  where  we  fail,  not 
intellect.  We  hear  much  about  intellect, 
about  "  brains,"  as  the  rather  coarse  expres- 

38 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

sion  is.  It  is  not  that  which  is  needed;  it  is 
courage. 

Efnter  into  conversation  the  next  time  you 
are  at  the  club,  or  in  a  hotel,  or  restaurant,  or 
wherever  you  meet  men  in  intellectual  hospi- 
tality, on  almost  any  subject  you  may  choose, 
you  will  be  amazed  at  the  information,  the 
original  thought,  the  keen  analysis,  even  the 
constructive  ideas  of  most  of  the  men  there. 

One  of  the  most  fertile  minds  I  have  ever 
known  is  nothing  but  an  unsuccessful  lawyer 
in  a  country  town ;  yet  his  intellect  is  as  tropi- 
cal, and  as  accurate,  too,  as  was  Napoleon's, 
or  Gould's. 

How  is  it  that  all  these  people  do  not  achieve 
the  successes  to  which  their  mere  thinking 
entitles  them?  I  say,  to  which  their  mere 
thinking  entitles  them,  because — I  say  it  again 
— if  you  will  put  them  beside  the  great  masters 
of  affairs  you  will  find  that  they  have  as  many 
ideas  as  have  these  captains  of  business.  My 
young  friend,  it  is  simply  because  they  have 
not  courage  and  constancy.  Long  ago  I  cata- 
logued the  qualities  that  make  up  character,  in 
relative  importance,  as  follows: 

First:  Sincerity;  fidelity,  the  ability  to  be 
true — true  to  friends,  true  to  ideas,  true  to 
ideals,  true  to  your  task,  true  to  the  truth. 

39 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

Who  shall  deny  that  the  martyrs  Nero  burned 
did  not  experience  joys  in  the  consuming 
flame  more  delicate  and  sweet  than  ever 
thrilled  epicure  or  lover? 

Second  (and  well-nigh  first)  :  Courage — the 
godlike  quality  that  dreads  not;  the  unanalyz- 
able  thing  in  man  that  makes  him  execute 
his  conception — no  matter  how  insane  or  ab- 
surd it  may  appear  to  others — if  it  appears 
rational  to  him,  and  then  stride  ahead  to  his 
next  great  deed,  regardless  of  the  gossips. 

Third:  Reserve — the  power  to  hold  one's 
forces  in  check,  as  a  general  disposes  his  army 
in  an  engagement  on  which  the  fate  of  an 
empire  or  of  the  world  may  depend.  This 
power  of  reserve  involves  silence.  Talk  all 
you  please,  but  keep  your  large  conceptions 
to  yourself  till  the  hour  to  strike  arrives,  and 
then  strike  with  all  your  might. 

In  politics  they  call  some  men  "  rubber 
shoes " ;  such  men  continue  long,  but  they 
never  achieve  highly.  Do  not  try  to  cultivate 
this  quality  if  Nature  has  been  so  kind  as  not 
to  endow  you  with  it.  It  is  not  a  masterful 
quality.  Have  the  courage  not  only  of  your 
convictions — that  is  not  so  hard — but  have  the 
courage  of  your  conceptions.  But  do  not  simu- 
late courage  if  you  have  it  not.    False  courage 

40 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

is  worse  than  cowardice — it  is  falsehood  and 
cowardice  combined. 

Reserve  also  includes  the  power  to  wait; 
and  that  is  almost  as  crucial  a  test  of  greatness 
as  courage  itself.  Many  a  battle  has  been  lost 
by  over-eagerness.  There  was  the  greatness 
of  Fate  itself  in  the  order  of  the  American 
officer  of  the  Revolution  who  said,  "  Wait, 
men,  until  you  see  the  whites  of  their  eyes." 

Time  is  a  young  man's  greatest  ally.  That 
is  why  youth  holds  the  whip-hand  of  the  world. 
That  is  why  youth  can  afford  to  dare.  It  is 
also  why  age  does  not  dare  to  dare.  With 
youth,  to-morrow  is  merely  an  accession  of 
power;  but  with  age — ah,  well,  with  age,  as 
Omar  says, 

' '  To-moiTow  I  may  be 
Myself  with  yesterday''s  seven  thousand  years." 

Fourth:  The  fourth  quality  in  character, 
the  lowest  one  in  the  list,  is  Intellect.  Not  that 
it  is  not  so  valuable  as  the  others,  but  it  is  so 
abundant,  and,  without  the  others,  so  useless. 
What  is  it  we  hear  the  strong-handed  Philis- 
tines say  in  the  market-place?  "  Brains  are 
cheap  ";  that  is  what  we  hear  them  say.  And 
they  say  truly.  Many  years  ago  I  became  ac- 
quainted with  a  millionaire  who  had  acquired 
4  41 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

his  wealth  by  building  things,  raising  cattle, 
erecting  factories — not  by  shuffling  the  cards 
of  trade. 

His  grammar  is  defective,  but  his  elemental 
vitality  will  do  you  as  much  good  as  a  walk  in 
the  fresh  air  after  the  poisoned  and  steaming 
atmosphere  of  a  crowded  room.  "  How  have 
I  succeeded?  "  said  he,  in  answer  to  a  question 
one  day.  "  Oh,  by  just  having  the  nerve  to  de- 
cide upon  a  plan,  and  then  by  hiring  these 
brainy  fellows  to  do  my  work.  I  can  get  the 
services  of  the  ablest  lawyer  in  this  city  for  a 
crumb  of  the  loaf  I  realize  from  his  thought 
and  industry.  The  secret  of  success?  Why, 
sir,  it  is  will,  that  is  all — will,  nerve,  '  sand.'  " 

Let  me  enlarge  on  the  first  great  quality 
of  character.  Sincerity,  truthfulness — write 
these  on  the  tablets  of  your  heart;  get  them 
into  your  blood.  This  is  something  that  you 
can  cultivate.  One  of  the  keen  la^\yers  of 
my  town  whom  we  elected  as  judge  of  our 
court,  and  who  is  full  of  the  fresh  and  living 
wisdom  of  the  people,  said  this  one  day: 

"  A  man  can  cultivate  honesty — there  is  no 
doubt  about  that ;  but  a  man  who  is  born  hon- 
est has  a  great  advantage." 

So  if  you  have  any  taint  of  the  blood  which 
you  discover  inclines  you  toward  guile,  insin- 

42 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

cerity,  and  untruthfulness  fortify  yourself  by 
the  reflection  that  insincerity  is  a  losing  game. 
Put  it  on  the  low  ground  of  self-interest,  and 
be  truthful,  be  "  square." 

The  old  saying  that  "  honesty  is  the  best 
policy"  has  lost  its  original  force  by  much 
repetition.  And  it  does  not  go  far  enough, 
either.  I  am  speaking  of  more  than  mere 
mercantile  honesty ;  I  am  speaking  of  political 
sincerity,  of  intellectual  sincerity.  Never  at- 
tempt to  fool  anybody.  We  live  at  such  a  rate 
of  speed,  our  perceptions  have  become  so  ab- 
normally sensitive  and  acute,  that  it  is  next  to 
impossible  to  deceive  any  one;  and  he  who  at- 
tempts it  is  usually  the  only  one  deceived. 

If,  then,  a  man  can  mount  upon  this  hum- 
ble stepping-stone  of  low  personal  interest  to 
sincerity  for  the  sake  of  his  own  advantage,  he 
will,  after  a  while,  be  able  to  climb  higher,  to 
the  exalted  plane  of  truthfulness  for  the  sake 
of  truth ;  and  then  he  will  behold  the  beatitudes 
of  righteous  living,  and  experience  the  joys 
which  putting  oneself  in  harmony  with  the 
order  of  the  universe  and  the  on-going  of 
events  never  fails  to  bring.  As  a  great  scien- 
tist puts  it,  "  Establish  your  polarity,  young 
man,  and  sleep  soundly  at  night." 

And  courage:  A  successful  manufacturer 
43 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

said  to  me  one  day,  in  explaining  his  own  suc- 
cess :  ''  I  never  let  my  idea  get  cold.  That,  I 
think,  is  why  I  have  succeeded.  When  a  great 
business  deal  came  to  my  mind,  I  did  not  waste 
my  energy  inquiring  about  whether  I  could  do 
it.  I  did  not  waste  time  and  strength  regret- 
ting that  I  was  not  stronger.  I  did  not  destroy 
my  force  by  doubting  my  own  conception.  I 
went  at  it.  I  did  it.  I  spent  all  my  energy 
on  execution  after  I  had  once  conceived  it. 
Did  I  not  make  mistakes  following  such  a 
plan?  Why,  of  course  I  made  mistakes;  and 
God  protect  me  from  the  man  who  never  made 
a  mistake! 

"  But  acting  by  that  method  alone,"  said 
he,  "  is  the  way  I  achieved  all  my  triumphs. 
I  do  not  pursue  that  course  now,  because  I 
am  getting  old,  and  I  am  in  very  poor  health. 
Age  and  ill  health  make  me  doubt;  so  I  have 
not  made  any  large  business  success  for  sev- 
eral years.  I  should  say  that  the  reason  why 
so  many  men  who  are  really  capable  intellec- 
tually fail,  is  because  they  are  infidels  to  their 
own  thought,  traitors  to  their  own  conception. 

"  If  I  could  concentrate  all  the  advice  of 
my  life  into  one  thing,"  declared  this  strong 
wise  man,  in  concluding  his  comments  on  fail- 
ure and  success,  "  it  would  be  for  those  young 

44 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

men  who  expect  to  do  something  constructive 
to  have  faith  in  their  idea,  and  act  upon  it 
before  it  gets  cold.  There  is  a  tremendous 
force  in  the  enthusiasm  of  your  freshly  formed 
plan.  You  have  contributed  largely  to  the 
defeat  of  your  scheme  when  you  have  permitted 
yourself  to  doubt  it." 

It  was  only  the  other  day  that  the  news- 
papers were  full  of  an  extraordinary  achieve- 
ment of  one  of  the  American  magicians  of 
business;  and  the  papers  said  that  the  remark- 
able thing  about  it  was  that  the  plan  flashed 
upon  him  in  a  single  evening,  as  he  was  leaving 
for  a  long  vacation.  He  acted  upon  it  instant- 
ly, and  devoted  his  fortune,  reputation,  almost 
life,  to  its  consummation.  He  succeeded.  If 
he  had  taken  six  months  to  have  thought  over 
it,  his  conception  would  have  been  abandoned. 

While  this  man's  plan  came  on  him  in  an 
evening,  a  study  of  his  life  shows  that,  uncon- 
sciously to  himself,  it  had  been  growing  for 
a  long  series  of  years.  It  flowered  out  all  at 
once,  like  the  night-blooming  cereus.  Caesar 
decided  to  cross  the  Rubicon  on  the  instant? 
Yes,  but  we  cannot  doubt  that  this  imperial 
resolution  had  been  formed  the  day  when  in 
the  Forum,  as  Macaulay  describes  it,  Caesar 
said  that  the  future  Dictator  of  Rome  might 

45 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

be  Pompey,  or  Crassus,  or  still  somebody  else 
whom  nobody  was  thinking  of  (that  somebody 
else  being  himself,  of  course). 

And,  indeed,  Csesar  would  at  that  time  have 
been  the  last  that  any  Roman  would  have  se- 
lected as  the  master  of  the  world.  He  was 
young.  He  was  small.  He  seemed  almost 
frail.  He  was  an  unspeakable  egotist.  He 
was  fastidious  in  his  dress.  I  have  read  that  he 
even  used  perfumes.  And  how  could  the  com- 
mon eye  discern,  through  all  of  these  externals 
of  frippery,  the  lion  heart,  the  eagle  vision, 
and  the  mind  of  conquest  and  empire? 

There  is  a  very  great  danger  in  the  examples 
just  cited.  These  men  were  geniuses,  and  they 
are  not  to  be  imitated  except  as  their  methods 
may  be  applicable  to  the  common  man.  This 
paper  is  for  common  men — for  people  like  our- 
selves. There  are  geniuses;  but  their  high- 
wrought  lives,  tornado  activity,  and  methods 
of  lightning  are  not  for  us.  All  the  world's 
real  leaders,  whether  in  the  fields  of  thought 
or  action,  whether  in  the  council-chamber  of 
the  statesman,  on  the  battle-field  of  the  war- 
rior, in  the  study  of  the  writer,  or  in  the  labora- 
tory of  the  scientist — all  have  been  men  of 
genius.  No  mediocre  man  ever  was  a  great 
leader  in  the  historic  sense. 

46 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

With  our  habit  of  looking  at  to-day  as 
though  it  were  eternity,  we  consider  men 
"  leaders,"  and  use  the  adjectives  "  great," 
"  splendid,"  etc.,  as  applied  to  them,  when  his- 
torically these  men  will  hardly  be  discernible. 

But  all  the  figures  large  enough  to  fill  his- 
tory's perspective  always  have  been  and  al- 
ways will  be  geniuses — men  in  whom  the  en- 
ergy, the  thought,  the  imagination,  the  power 
of  hundreds  of  men  are  concentrated.  Let 
us  not  deceive  ourselves,  and  reap  misery  and 
disappointment  by  thinking  that  we  can,  by 
any  effort,  equal  them.  Alexander,  Caesar, 
Richelieu,  Napoleon,  Bismarck,  Washington, 
Darwin,  Goethe,  Shakespeare,  Lincoln,  Pas- 
teur, Edison,  Plato,  Rhodes,  Ito,  Diaz,  Peter 
the  Great — we  cannot  explain  these  phenom- 
ena of  human  intellect  and  character  except  by 
the  word  genius. 

All  our  toil  and  patience  and  everything 
cannot  seat  us  in  the  high  places  of  these 
princes  of  Nature.  "  Who,  by  taking  thought, 
can  add  a  cubit  to  his  stature?  "  (The  Bible 
again,  you  see;  we  cannot  get  away  from  the 
Bible.) 

But  these  men  never  knew  that  they  were 
geniuses.  They  would  have  known  it  undoubt- 
edly if  they  had  stopped  to  think  about  it. 

47 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

But  they  were  too  busy  with  their  task.  A 
genius  never  thinks  about  his  powers,  any 
more  than  an  eagle  is  concerned  about  the 
method  of  his  royal  flight  from  the  mountain 
crag.  But  for  us,  of  the  common  mass  of 
men,  only  those  methods  of  genius  are  appli- 
cable which  are  within  our  reach.  Mostly  for 
us  are  the  slow  and  toilsome — the  sure,  if  grad- 
ual— processes  of  patient  labor  and  infinite 
pains. 

So  do  not  let  the  thought  that  you  are  a  ge- 
nius abide  with  you  for  a  moment — the  main 
traveled  roads  for  us  ordinary  mortals!  The 
beaten  paths  are  not  so  far  wrong,  after  all; 
and  at  their  end  is  certain,  even  perhaps  distin- 
guished, if  not  startling  and  historic,  success. 

And,  besides,  epoch-makers  are  not  needed 
until  an  epoch  needs  to  be  made. 

Do  not  worry  about  greatness,  therefore. 
If  greatness  is  for  you,  God's  call  will  surely 
come  to  you.  If  it  does  not — well,  the  arche- 
ologists  uncovered  Nippur  the  other  day,  with 
its  palaces  and  courts  and  abodes  of  those  who 
were  great  and  mighty  more  than  2,500  years 
before  Abraham. 

So  consider  Nippur,  and  be  patient  and 
humble.  I  instanced  Rhodes  in  naming  some 
of  the  world's  monarchs  of  mind  and  will. 

48 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

Very  well!  Yesterday  all  Christendom  was 
ringing  with  his  imperial  work.  He  was  devel- 
oping a  continent;  establishing  the  reign  of 
law,  industry,  and  peace  where  savagery  and 
the  wilderness  had  held  sway  for  a  million 
years. 

But  it  was  yesterday  that  he  did  this.  He 
is  dead  now.  Already  you  have  half  forgotten 
him.  You  see  we  are  living  a  century  in  a 
minute. 

Besides,  if  Clotho  has  not  spun  greatness 
into  your  destiny,  be  sure  that  it  does  not  mat- 
ter. The  reward  of  Cecil  Rhodes  was  in  the 
thing  he  did,  and  not  in  the  memory  which  men 
have  of  it.  The  man  who  digs  a  well  has 
precisely  the  same  reward.  The  point  is  that 
you  must  do  the  deed  for  the  deed's  sake.  Do 
not  do  it  because  the  crowd  will  clap  their 
hands.  When  present  applause  or  ultimate 
fame  become  your  chief  purpose  in  life,  what 
are  you,  after  all  ?  You  are  a  play-actor — that 
is  what  you  are.    Put  it  from  you.    Be  a  man. 

Yes,  consider  Nippur,  and  be  a  man.  One 
lesson  these  ancient  ruins  teach — the  nothing- 
ness of  fame,  and  that  the  only  things  in  life 
worth  while  are  love  and  duty.  I  cannot  think 
of  any  blessing  so  great  to  an  ardent  young 
American  as  to  learn  at  the  very  threshold  of 

49 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

his  career  of  activities  that  duty  and  affection 
are  the  only  things  really  whose  value  lasts  and 
increases — the  only  things  that  pay  increasing 
dividends. 

In  a  conversation  in  which  the  same  view  of 
reading  given  in  this  paper  was  set  forth,  a 
very  bright  and  earnest  woman  questioned  the 
propriety  of  such  advice.  "  For,"  said  she, 
"  the  result  of  that  advice  is  to  quiet  rather 
than  excite  the  activities  and  ambitions ;  it  is  to 
retard  rather  than  hasten  intellectual  acqui- 
sition; it  is  to  check  rather  than  advance  a 
5^oung  man's  career." 

But,  granting  that  this  be  true,  the  very  ob- 
jection is  itself  one  of  the  highest  merits  of 
the  advice  thus  criticized.  For  the  only  grave 
danger  before  capable  young  Americans,  and, 
indeed,  before  our  Nation,  is  that  of  hastening 
too  much,  of  sweeping  on  too  rapidly,  of 
straining  every  nerve  too  tensely,  of  living 
our  lives  with  an  ardor  all  too  fierce  and  hot. 
Don't  hurry — ^the  world  will  last  several  mil- 
lions of  years  longer. 

What  most  of  the  young  men  of  this  coun- 
try need  is  restraint,  not  stimulant;  what  this 
Nation  needs  is  reserve.  The  only  serious  fear 
I  entertain  for  our  future  is  that  the  great 
rapidity  of  our  common  lives  will  make  us 

50 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

neurotic.  I  prefer  a  young  man  to  be  a  little 
less  scintillant,  than  that  his  brilliancy  should 
be  at  the  expense  of  exhausted  nerves  and  en- 
feebled vitality. 

This  paper  is  supposed  to  be  advice  which 
will  be  practically  helpful  to  young  men  in 
their  struggle  with  the  world.  Very  well,  then ! 
From  the  low  view-point  of  self-interest,  I 
would  advise  every  young  man  to  cultivate  un- 
selfishness. Do  at  least  one  thing  every  day 
which  helps  somebody  else,  and  from  which 
you  cannot  possibly  harvest  any  profit  and 
advantage.  Do  one  thing  every  day  that  can- 
not in  any  way  bring  you  tangible  reward, 
directly  or  indirectly,  now  or  ever. 

I  know  of  no  discipline  of  character  equal 
to  this.  After  a  while  a  subtle  change  will 
come  over  your  nature.  You  will  grow  into 
an  understanding  of  the  practical  value  of  the 
Master's  w^ords:  "It  is  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive."  There  comes  to  you  an  ac- 
quisition of  power.  Your  influence,  by  a  proc- 
ess which  escapes  any  human  analysis,  reaches 
out  over  your  associates,  and,  in  proportion 
to  the  magnitude  of  your  character,  over 
humanity. 

A  man  cannot  select  a  surer  road  to  char- 
acter ruin  than  to  have  a  selfish  motive  back 

51 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

of  every  action.  To  do  all  of  your  deeds,  or 
most  of  them,  with  the  thought  of  the  advan- 
tage they  will  bring  you,  will  result  in  paral- 
ysis of  soul  as  surely  as  certain  drugs  intro- 
duced into  the  nerves  for  a  long  period  of 
time  will  result  in  physical  paralysis.  I  do 
not  think  that  there  can  be  a  more  valuable 
suggestion  made  to  a  yomig  man  facing  the 
world  and  desiring  to  increase  his  powers  than 
to  practise  unselfishness. 

What  is  it  we  say  of  certain  men:  *' Oh, 
he  is  for  himself."  It  is  a  Cain-like  label. 
Never  let  it  be  pinned  on  your  coat.  In  poli- 
tics, note  how  the  power  of  some  leader  dis- 
solves when  his  followers  find  out  that  it  is 
all  for  him  and  none  for  them.  And  in  busi- 
ness we  are  all  on  our  guard  against  the  man 
who  wants  the  whole  thing,  and  will  take  it 
if  he  is  not  watched.  Even  when  selfishness 
succeeds,  it  never  satisfies.  It  is  like  the 
drunkard's  thirst. 

No,  no,  young  man,  put  selfishness  from 
you.  It  is  not  even  the  method  of  business 
profit.  After  all,  we  are  living  for  happiness, 
are  we  not?  Very  well.  Try  to  make  some 
one  else  happy,  and  experience  a  felicity  more 
delicate  and  exalted  than  you  ever  imagined 
in  your  fondest  dreams  of  joy.    By  all  means 

52 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

practise  unselfishness.  "  Get  the  habit,"  as 
our  Americanism  has  it.  Live  for  somebody 
or  something  besides  yourself.  Reallj^  none 
of  us  amount  to  enough  to  live  for  ourselves 
alone.  Oh,  no!  that  game  is  not  worth  the 
candle,  believe  me. 

Finally  and  especially,  reverence  age.  Be 
deferential  to  maturity.  This  is  the  one  thing 
in  which  we  Americans  are  yet  deficient.  The 
man  who  has  lived  a  single  decade  longer  than 
you,  deserves  your  consideration  and  respect. 
Be  in  no  haste  to  displace  your  seniors.  Time 
will  do  that  all  too  quickly.  The  finest  char- 
acteristic of  the  Oriental  is  his  profound  re- 
gard for  all  age.  Follow  the  Asiatic  in  this 
one  thing  only.  Heed  venerable  counsels;  de- 
fer to  maturity's  wisdoms.  There  is  some- 
thing majestic  about  advancing  years.  Be  to 
all  men  and  women  older  than  yourself  what 
you  would  like  other  young  men  to  be  to  your 
father  and  mother. 

Be  a  man;  that's  the  sum  of  it  all — be  a 
man.  Be  all  that  we  Americans  mean  by 
those  three  words. 


53 


II 

THE   OLD    HOME 

Do  we  not  pay  so  much  attention  to  mere 
material  success  that  we  exclude  from  mind 
and  heart  other  things  more  precious?  I  am 
anxious  that  every  young  American  should 
win  in  all  the  conflicts  of  life — win  in  college, 
win  in  business,  etc.;  but  I  am  even  more 
anxious  that  through  all  of  his  triumphs  he 
should  grow  ever  broader,  sweeter,  and  more 
kindly.  After  all,  we.  are  human  beings.  We 
do  not  want  to  become  mere  machines  of  suc- 
cess, do  we? 

That  is  carrying  our  mechanical  age  a  little 
too  far.  We  want  to  keep  that  within  us 
which  makes  our  victory  worth  having  after 
we  have  won  it.  What  matters  your  moun- 
tains of  wealth,  or  your  network  of  political 
power,  or  those  secrets  which  in  your  labora- 
tory you  have  wrung  from  Nature- — what  mat- 
ters all  and  everything  that  the  world  calls 
"  success,"  if  the  human  quality  has  been  dried 
up  in  you? 

54 


THE   OLD   HOME 

Those  are  fine  things  that  St.  Paul  says 
about  a  man  not  amounting  to  anything,  no 
matter  how  talented  and  powerful  he  may  be, 
if  he  have  not  charity:  "And  though  I  have 
the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  understand  all  mys- 
teries, and  all  knowledge;  and  though  I  have 
all  faith,  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains, 
and  have  not  charity,  I  am  nothing  " ;  and 
you  will  recall  the  remainder  of  his  admirable 
comments  on  this  subject. 

Everybody  points  out  to  you  what  you  can 
get  out  of  college,  and  how  to  get  It;  what  you 
can  get  out  of  a  "  career,"  and  how  to  get  that. 
But  lest  all  of  your  getting  turns  to  bitter 
emptiness  in  the  end,  you  must  pay  attention 
to  that  elemental  manhood  exalted  by  those 
beautiful  moralities  that  you  get  at  but  one 
place  and  at  but  one  period  in  this  world. 
That  period  is  the  early  time  of  your  young 
manhood  before  you  enter  college;  and  that 
place  is  the  old  home  where  influences  angelic 
have  been  at  work  upon  your  character. 

It  could  not  be  otherwise.  Home — the 
home  that  you  leave  or  the  home  you  make 
— is  the  spot  where  most  of  your  life  is 
to  be  spent.  Home  was  the  place  of  your 
birth;  and  if  the  angel  of  death  is  kind  to 
you,  home  will  be  the  place  of  your  farewell. 

55 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

It  is  to  the  home  that  you  bring  hfe's  wages, 
whether  those  wages  are  opulence,  glory,  or 
merely  daily  bread. 

It  is  the  home  which  interprets  the  whole 
universe  for  you.  And  it  is  the  home  which 
not  only  furnishes  a  reason  for  your  existence, 
but  in  itself  constitutes  the  motive  for  all 
manly  effort.  Quite  naturally,  therefore,,  the 
home  is  concerned  with  character  more  than  it 
is  with  grosser  things. 

The  instruction  which  the  American  mother 
gives  her  son  is  a  training  in  honor  rather  than 
in  success.  Her  passion  for  righteousness 
creeps  into  the  commonplaces  of  her  daily 
speech.  "  Be  a  good  boy  "  is  what  she  says 
to  the  little  fellow  each  day  as  he  starts  to 
school.  "Be  a  good  boy  "  is  what  she  says 
to  the  youth  when  he  leaves  for  college.  "Be 
a  good  boy  "  is  still  her  sacred  charge  when, 
standing  at  the  gate,  she  gives  him  her  bless- 
ing as  he  goes  out  into  the  world. 

And,  finally,  "  Be  a  good  boy  "  is  what  her 
lips  murmur  when  in  after  years,  rich  per- 
chance in  achievement,  honor,  power,  or  wealth, 
the  man  of  the  world  returns  to  the  old  home 
to  again  get  her  benediction,  and  have  his 
weary  soul  refreshed  by  the  beauty  of  her 
almost  holy  presence. 

5Q 


THE   OLD   HOME 

For  you  never  cease  to  be  a  boy  to  her; 
and  her  supreme  wish  and  most  passionate 
prayer  for  you  is  not  that  you  shall  be  a 
strong  man,  or  a  rich  man,  or  an  able  man — 
she  wants  you  to  be  all  these,  of  course,  and 
everything  else  that  is  fine — but  chiefly  she 
cares  that  you  should  be  a  good  man. 

And  so  it  is  that  home  is  the  temple  of  ideals, 
the  sanctuary  of  the  true,  the  beautiful,  and 
the  good.  Or  put  it  in  scientific  phrase,  and 
say :  Home  is  the  laboratory  of  character.  The 
home  is  the  place  where  you  get  what  the 
common  people  so  pithil^'^  call  your  "  bringing 
up."  It  is  there  where  your  conception  of  all 
human  relationships  is  formed.  It  is  there 
where  it  is  largely  determined  whether  you  will 
make  your  life  worth  the  living. 

Your  future  sits  at  the  old  fireside.  The 
fate  of  the  Nation  abides  beneath  the  roof- 
tree.  And  so  it  is  that  neither  college,  nor 
market-place,  nor  forum,  nor  editor's  sanctum, 
nor  traffic  of  the  high  seas,  nor  anything  that 
you  may  do,  nor  any  environment  that  may 
hereafter  surround  you,  is  so  important  to 
you  as  the  old  home  and  your  early  years. 
Yes,  and  not  to  you  only,  but  to  the  Nation 
also. 

Nothing  means  so  much  to  the  Republic  as 
5  57 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

the  influence  of  the  American  home  upon  the 
young  manhood  of  the  Nation. 

We  are  about  to  enter  upon  the  serious 
problem  of  the  regulation  of  railway  rates, 
which  is  a  beginning  in  some  sort  of  the 
national  control  of  transportation.  It  is  a 
problem  whose  weight  and  possibilities  chal- 
lenge and  all  but  confound  every  thought- 
ful and  serious  mind.  Every  step  in  its  so- 
lution must  be  taken  with  both  wisdom  and 
justice. 

Our  relations  with  the  Orient  daily  in- 
crease, and  the  fixedness  of  our  position  in 
the  Far  East  hourly  becomes  more  definite. 
The  public  man  wears  a  scarf  about  his  eyes 
who  does  not  see  that  our  historic  statesman- 
ship during  this  century  will  deal  with  our 
growing  mastery  of  the  Pacific,  and  the 
weaving  backward  and  forward  across  that 
ocean  of  our  ever-multiplying  relations  with 
the  East. 

This  paper  might  be  entirely  taken  up  with 
a  statement  of  tangled  situations  and  deep 
problems  which  will  require  the  combined  in- 
telligence of  the  whole  American  people  to 
solve. 

Yet,  for  the  purpose  of  this  life,  what  are 
they  all,  compared  with  the  character  of  in- 

58 


THE   OLD   HOME 

dividual  Americans,  and  therefore  with  the 
influence  of  the  American  home  upon  Ameri- 
can men  in  the  making;  for  men  in  the  ma- 
king is  what  the  youth  of  our  land  are.  Glad- 
stone stated  a  truth,  wide  and  vital  as  English 
institutions,  when  he  said  that  the  relation  of 
the  Church  to  the  youth  of  Great  Britain  is 
a  matter  of  more  concern  than  all  the  problems 
of  the  Empire  put  together. 

All  this  is  commonplace,  you  S2cy.  I  say 
so  too.  .Yet  it  is  the  commonplaces,  and 
those  things  alone,  by  which  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being.  For  example,  sunlight 
is  commonplace,  and  so  is  air.  Who  was  it 
that  spoke  about  the  damnable  iteration  of  the 
seasons  ? 

A  storm  is  not  commonplace,  but  how  long 
could  any  of  us  live — how  long  would  any  of 
us  choose  to  live — were  each  day  and  night  a 
succession  of  thunder,  lightning,  and  down- 
pom*?  Good  citizenship  is  commonplace, 
whereas  a  murder  mystery  excites  us  thrill- 
ingly.  Yet  none  of  us  on  that  account  would 
choose  the  society  of  criminals. 

It  is  to  the  elemental  commonplaces  that  I 
am  now  going  to  direct  your  attention.  The 
world  is  kept  alive  by  its  monotonies.  The 
trouble  is  that  the  indispensable  things  are  so 

59 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

inevitable  and  persistent  that  we  take  them 
for  granted,  and  yield  them  neither  gratitude 
nor  even  attention. 

Take  the  beauty  of  daylight  as  our  illus- 
tration once  more.  We  had  it  yesterday, 
have  it  to-day,  have  had  it  ever  since  we  Avere 
born,  and  will  have  it  until  we  die.  Note,  too, 
the  eternal  stability  of  the  heavens,  which 
change  not  at  all;  and  the  endless  pour  of 
ocean's  currents,  warming  certain  coasts  and 
leaving  others  chill.  It  is  the  same  with  the 
life  intellectual  and  the  life  spiritual. 

"  What  is  the  grandest  thing  in  the  uni- 
verse? "  asks  Hugo.  "  A  storm  at  sea,"  he 
answers,  and  continues,  "  And  what  is  grander 
than  a  storm  at  sea? "  "  The  unclouded 
heavens  on  a  starry  and  moonless  night." 
"  And  what  is  grander  than  these  midnight 
skies?  "  "  The  soul  of  man!  "  A  spectacular 
climax  such  as  Hugo  loved;  and  still,  with  all 
its  dramatic  effect,  the  picturesque  statement 
of  a  vast  and  mighty  truth ! 

Very  well.  The  home  is  the  place  where 
character  is  to  be  formed,  and  therefore  its 
influences  on  "  the  soul  of  man  "  are  like  those 
of  the  sun  on  the  body  of  man.  Let  us  get  to 
those  commonplaces,  therefore,  at  which  the 
cynic  lifts  his  lip,  but  which  are  worth  a  good 

60 


THE   OLD   HOME 

deal  more  to  you,  young  man,  than  all  your 
achievings  will  be. 

As  to  the  moralities,  then,  yield  yourself  ut- 
terly to  the  mother.  She  has  an  instinctive 
perception  of  righteousness  as  affecting  your 
character  that  no  other  intelligence  under 
heaven  has,  and  that  she  does  not  have  for 
any  one  else,  not  even  for  herself.  She  has 
her  own  way,  too,  of  getting  this  nourishment 
of  the  verities  into  your  character.  It  is  done 
not  so  much  by  preaching  to  you,  or  lecturing 
you,  as  it  is  by  her  very  presence. 

She  carries  about  with  her  an  atmosphere 
of  sweetness  and  light.  The  mother  gives  to 
her  boy  a  kind  of  unspoken  counsel.  It  is  a 
very  subtle  thing,  like  electricity  in  the  ma- 
terial world,  and  equally  as  powerful  as  that 
mysterious  fluid.  You  get  its  effects  by  put- 
ting yourself  eagerly  and  lovingly  under  its 
soothing  yet  ennobling  and  tonic  influence. 
It  is  a  matter  hard  to  describe,  but  more  real 
than  any  other  human  force  I  know  of. 

So  the  first  thing  for  you  to  do  is  to  resolve 
to  be  "  mother's  own  boy,"  as  the  sneering 
tongue  of  shallowness  puts  it,  just  as  long 
as  you  possibly  can.  It  will  be  the  greatest 
luck  you  will  ever  have,  if  you  are  able  to  be 
"  mother's  own  boy "   as   long  as   she  lives. 

61 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

Don't  be  afraid  that  that  will  make  you  ef- 
feminate and  soft;  don't  think  for  a  moment 
that  it  will  paralyze  the  force  and  power  of 
your  growing  manhood. 

I  have  seen  one  of  this  kind  of  fellows  hold 
in  awe  a  mob  of  cowboys  and  plainsmen  when 
passions  were  aroused  and  blows  had  already 
been  struck.  I  have  seen  such  a  man  put  down, 
single-handed,  by  word  of  his  fearless  author- 
ity, fights  among  a  score  of  woodmen  who  had 
known  nothing  but  the  rank  vigor  of  their 
unruled  male  lives. 

The  man  whose  will  and  character  has  been 
tempered  by  this  holy  fire  takes  on  something 
of  the  suppleness,  hardness,  and  firmness  of 
steel,  of  which  a  delicate  blade  will  cut  the 
grosser  iron  of  which  that  blade  itself  was  a 
part  before  it  was  subjected  to  the  refining 
process  that  made  it  steel. 

Some  time  ago  I  was  privileged  to  read  the 
letters  that  one  of  our  naval  heroes  had,  when 
a  young  man,  despatched  home  to  his  mother 
during  our  civil  war.  He  participated  in  two 
or  three  of  our  most  desperate  fights.  All  of 
these  letters  showed  him  to  have  been — and, 
what  is  better,  to  have  remained — a  "  mother's 
own  boy  "  as  long  as  she  lived. 

He  never  sailed  far  enough  away  to  weaken 
62 


THE   OLD   HOME 

that  potent  and  sacred  power.  It  reached 
around  the  world.  The  years  did  not  diminish 
it.  When  her  hair  of  brown  had  turned  to 
white,  he  found  that  the  influence  which  to  his 
boyhood  and  youth  had  been  so  dehghtful  be- 
came to  his  manhood  upHfting  and  glorious. 

And  yet  no  buccaneer  that  rioted  afloat  with 
Morgan  had  courage  more  ferocious.  Yes, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  no  Bayard  "  without 
fear  and  without  reproach  ";  no  Sydney  who, 
when  dying,  handed  his  canteen  to  a  wounded 
comrade  that  he  might  moisten  his  lips,  while 
Sydney's  own  were  crackling  with  fever,  was 
ever  more  tender  or  considerate. 

What  was  it  the  expiring  Nelson  said  when 
his  decks  ran  blood,  and  crimson  victory 
placed  upon  his  whitening  brow  laurels  of 
triumph,  whose  leaves  were  mingled  with  cy- 
press? "  Kiss  me.  Hardy,"  was  what  he  said. 
Strange  words,  were  they  not,  for  a  scene  of 
carnage?  Yes,  but  words  which  touched  the 
hearts  of  the  English  people. 

They  showed  that  upon  the  mind  of  Eng- 
land's greatest  captain  of  the  sea  the  tender  in- 
fluence of  the  old  mother,  and  the  old  home  in 
distant  England,  survived  all  the  variableness 
of  his  character,  all  the  supreme  efforts  of 
his  career,  and  that  a  gentleness  and  an  almost 

63 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

womanly  yearning  for  affection  were  the 
qualities  that  ruled  the  soul  of  the  most  des- 
perate ocean  fighter  the  world  had  seen  since 
Drake.  They  showed  that  the  heart  of  the 
sternest  warrior  may  be  beautiful  with  the  hu- 
manities. How  does  the  old  song  go? — "  The 
bravest  are  the  tenderest  " — that  is  it. 

So  fear  not  that  mother's  influence  will 
weaken  you.  It  will  do  nothing  of  the  kind. 
It  will  strengthen  you.  It  will  make  you  want 
to  fight  only  for  something  worth  fighting  for. 
But  when  you  fight  for  that,  it  will  make  you 
fight  to  the  death.  And  what  is  the  use  of 
fighting  at  all  unless  it  be  to  the  death.  A 
brawl  is  not  conflict,  bravado  is  not  bravery. 

I  know  there  is  another  side  to  this  question. 
It  has  been  recently  stated  by  a  resourceful 
Oriental.  He  said  that  the  influence  of 
women  on  the  Occidental  man  is  effeminizing 
our  civilization.  He  declared  that  the  mother 
gives  the  boy  his  first  training,  teaches  him  to 
talk,  etc.,  which  is  natural  and  therefore  right 
and  proper. 

But  then,  said  our  Asiatic  critic,  we  give 
our  boys  to  women  school-teachers,  who  edu- 
cate them  until  they  are  ready  for  college,  and 
then,  as  soon  as  they  are  ready  for  college,  they 
begin  to  "  call  on  the  young  women,"  and  gen- 

64 


THE   OLD   HOME 

erally  frequent  the  society  of  the  softer  sex 
until  the  time  arrives  for  them  to  marry. 

So  that,  according  to  this  Oriental,  we  are 
under  the  direct  influence  of  woman  from  the 
cradle  to  the  grave;  and  he  points  out  that 
gradually  (imperceptibly,  perhaps,  to  our  own 
eyes)  an  efFeminizing  process  occurs  in  mind 
and  character.  As  a  result  of  this,  he  main- 
tains, our  men  increasingly  fear  hardships  and 
seek  to  avoid  them ;  and  life  and  even  personal 
appearance  are  given  a  value  wliich  is  absurd, 
considering  the  inevitableness  of  death  in  any 
event,  the  perfectly  unthinkable  number  of 
myriads  of  human  beings  who  exist,  have  ex- 
isted, and  will  exist  hereafter. 

This  philosopher  of  the  East,  therefore, 
claims  that  we  will  in  the  end  be  no  match 
at  all  for  the  Orientals,  and  that  the  yellow 
race,  which  has  been  merely  resting  while  we 
Caucasians  have  been  having  our  brief  innings, 
is  now  to  the  bat  again.  And  there  was  a  lot 
more  to  the  same  efl'ect. 

This  is  of  course  the  Asiatic  way  of  looking 
at  things.  There  may  be  something  in  what  he 
says  about  the  continuity  of  female  influence 
softening  our  Western  civilization.  Certainly 
the  present  war  shows  that  the  Japanese 
women,  who  were  only  yesterday  altogether 

65 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

Oriental  in  habits  and  ideals,  have  produced 
a  race  of  strong  men,  so  far  as  physical  daring 
and  hardihood  is  concerned.  The  influence  of 
women  on  these  men  ceased  with  childhood — 
even  then  it  was  a  Spartan  influence. 

More  than  this,  the  Japanese  generals  and 
statesmen,  nearly  all  of  whom  are  above  sixty, 
were  the  product  of  Japanese  civilization  be- 
fore modern  ideas  had  even  been  sown  in  the 
Island  Empire.  Oyama  and  Kuroki,  Ito  and 
Katsura,  and  all  the  rest,  are  the  ofl'spring  of 
purely  Asiatic  conditions,  uninfluenced  in  the 
slightest  degree  by  Western  thought  or  cus- 
tom ;  and  yet  the  state  of  society  which  brought 
forth  these  men  is  unfamiliar  to  American  and 
European  peoples. 

But  even  if  what  this  Oriental  assailant  of 
our  customs  terms  the  overcharge  of  femi- 
ninity in  Occidental  society  does  mellow  us, 
it  does  not  follow  that  it  weakens  us.  Any- 
how it  does  not  affect  what  I  say  about  the 
influence  of  the  mother  upon  the  purposes 
and  "  principles  "  of  young  men.  And,  in 
any  event,  our  Western  civilization  constitutes 
those  human  conditions  in  which  you,  young 
man,  must  spend  your  life,  and  you  must  be 
in  harmony  with  it  if  you  are  going  to  accom- 
plish anything. 

66 


THE   OLD   HOME 

Don't  try  to  be  an  Oriental  in  the  midst  of 
Occidental  surroundings.  The  yellow  theory 
and  the  white  theory  of  life  must  fight  for  the 
mastery,  and  the  one  which  is  nearest  the  truth 
will  prevail.  Meanwhile,  stick  to  your  own 
race  and  the  ideals  of  it.  I  do  not  mean  that 
you  should  ignore  any  true  thing  you  may 
learn  from  the  East.  Welcome  knowledge 
from  every  source.  Light  is  light,  no  matter 
whence  it  comes. 

And  this  brings  back  to  us  the  little  mother 
and  the  old  home.  If  she  wishes  it,  be  her 
companion.  In  any  event,  make  her  your  con- 
fidant. For  a  young  man  there  is  no  source 
of  safety  and  wisdom  so  abundant,  pure,  and 
unfailing  as  the  making  his  mother  his  con- 
fessor. Tell  her  everything.  I  mean  just 
that,  tell  her  literally  everything. 

Do  not  fear  her  reproof.  Chemistry  has  no 
miracle  a  fraction  as  wonderful  as  the  patience 
and  forgiveness  of  a  mother  for  the  exaspera- 
tions of  her  son.  There  is  not  a  thing  which 
you  ought  to  do,  the  telling  of  which  to  your 
mother  will  prevent  your  doing.  And  her 
counsel  to  you  will  be  golden  upon  those 
purely  personal  matters  which  you  could  tell 
no  one  else,  and  which  no  one  else  could  under- 
stand or  sympathize  with. 

67 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

Remember  that  she  has  the  wisdom  of  in- 
stinct— a  wisdom  peculiarly  worldly  and  prac- 
tical in  its  applicability  to  real  things  and  real 
situations.  The  advice  of  a  wife  in  business 
affairs  has  this  same  peculiarly  valuable  qual- 
ity, quite  beyond  the  strength  of  her  or  his 
intellect  or  the  reach  of  her  abstract  under- 
standing. 

It  is  the  instinct  to  preserve  the  home  nest 
which  makes  the  business  advice  of  the  wife 
to  the  husband  so  priceless ;  and  it  is  this  same 
instinct  exercising  itself  in  another  form — 
seeking  to  preserve  the  offspring — which  gives 
such  shrewdness  and  depth  to  the  counsel  of 
mother  to  son. 

This  making  your  mother  your  confessor 
will  not  only  keep  you  out  of  trouble,  and 
give  you  light  and  direction  along  lines  where 
you  otherwise  will  be  as  blind  as  a  young 
puppy,  but  it  is  good  for  you  in  a  far  more 
important  way — a  far  pro  founder  way.  I 
have  always  been  impressed  with  the  wonder- 
ful understanding  of  human  nature  and  the 
needs  of  it  which  the  institution  of  the  con- 
fessional in  the  Catholic  Church  reveals.  "  No 
man  liveth  to  himself  alone." 

For  the  ordinary  human  being  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  a  secret. 

68 


THE   OLD   HOME 

The  ordinary  man  who  is  compelled  to  keep 
everything  to  himself  gets  morbid  and  sus- 
picious. He  broods  over  what  he  thinks  he 
must  not  utter  to  others.  Not  daring  to  talk 
with  friends,  he  converses  with  himself.  Thus 
his  sympathies  narrow,  and  his  vision  grows 
not  only  feeble  but  false.  He  gets  the  pro- 
portion of  things  sadly  confused.  It  is  not 
only  a  relief,  but  a  real  benefit  to  most  men 
and  women  to  be  able  to  unburden  their  souls 
to  some  other  human  being  whom  they  know  to 
be  faithful. 

And  if  this  be  the  intellectual  need,  strong 
as  nature  itself,  of  grown-up  men  and  women, 
it  is  plain  that  the  young  man,  whose  character 
is  forming,  requires  the  same  thing  a  great 
deal  more.  Very  well.  Your  mother  is  the 
confessor,  young  man,  whom  Nature  has  given 
you  for  this  beautiful  and  saving  purpose.  Do 
not  eat  your  heart  out,  therefore,  but  frankly 
tell  her  your  hopes,  desires,  offenses,  plans. 

Confide  in  her  your  good  deeds  and  your 
bad.  And  she,  who  would  give  her  life  for 
you,  and  count  it  the  happiest  thing  she  ever 
did  if  it  would  only  help  you,  will  give  you  the 
very  gold  of  wisdom,  refined  and  superrefined 
by  the  fires  of  that  love  which  burn  nowhere 
else  in  the  universe  save  in  a  mother's  heart. 

69 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

Of  course  I  am  talking  now  of  the  ordinary 
American  mother,  who  is  a  mother  in  all  that 
the  term  implies.  We  all  know  that  there 
are  women  who  have  children  without  under- 
standing at  all — yes,  or  even  caring  at  all 
— what  motherhood  means;  without  under- 
standing or  caring  what  their  duties  to  their 
children  mean. 

As  is  always  the  case  with  the  abnormal, 
these  unfortunate  types  are  found  at  the  social 
extremes;  in  the  so-called  "depths"  and  the 
so-called  "  heights."  There  are  women  too 
vicious  to  make  good  mothers  and  women  too 
vain  to  make  good  mothers.  But  these  are 
not  numerous. 

The  mother  this  paper  is  dealing  with  is 
that  angel  in  human  form  that  the  ordinary 
American  man  knew  in  the  old  home  when 
he  was  a  boy;  and  whether  she  be  intellec- 
tual or  not,  educated  or  not,  such  mothers 
have  shaped  the  characters  that  have  made  the 
American  people  the  noblest  force  for  good 
in  all  the  world. 

In  her  work,  her  prayers,  her  daily  life,  you 
will  find  the  sources  of  all  that  is  self-sacrific- 
ing, prudent,  patriotic,  brave,  and  uplifting 
in  American  character.  It  is  the  influence  of 
the  American  mother  that  has  made  the  Amer- 

70 


THE   OLD   HOME 

ican  Republic  what  it  is ;  and  it  is  in  her  heart 
that  our  national  ideals  dwell. 

"  That  is  all  right,"  said  a  practical-minded 
man,  with  a  dash  of  American  humor  in  him, 
in  the  course  of  a  conversation  along  this  line; 
"  that  is  all  right,  and  I  think  so,  too,"  said 
he;  "  but  where  does  '  the  old  man '  come  in? 
What  about  the  father?  "  And  the  question  is 
as  sane  as  it  is  pat.  Don't  you  neglect  the  fa- 
ther. He  feeds  you.  He  clothes  you.  He  is 
schooling  you.  It  is  to  his  brain  and  hand,  and 
the  wisdom  and  skill  of  them,  that  you  are  in- 
debted for  the  college  education  you  are  going 
to  get. 

And  by  these  tokens  your  father  is  a  man, 
and  a  whole  lot  of  a  man  at  that. 

You  will  realize  how  much  of  a  man  he 
is  if  you  will  think  what  you  would  be  up 
against  if  you  had  to  support  yourself,  and 
then  another  person  more  expensive  than  your- 
self, and  in  addition  several  other  persons  more 
expensive  than  yourself — not  only  support 
them,  but  supply  their  whims  and  humor  their 
caprices;  for  it  must  be  said  of  us  Americans 
that  we  really  do  not  need  more  than  half  what 
we  think  we  positively  must  have. 

Think,  I  say,  young  man,  of  having  to  do 
all  that,  and  having  to  keep  on  doing  it  to-day 

71 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

and  to-morrow,  this  month  and  next  month, 
and  all  year  and  every  year  as  long  as  you  live. 
If,  in  your  mind,  you  feel  yourself  equal  to 
that,  tell  me,  do  you  not  feel  in  your  mind 
that  you  have  in  you  the  makings  of  a  man 
indeed — a  tremendous  man  ? 

Very  well.  That  is  what  your  father  not 
only  imagines,  but  does.  So  he  is  decidedly 
entitled  to  your  respect.  You  owe  him  grati- 
tude, too,  of  a  very  definite,  tangible  kind — the 
sort  of  gratitude  you  can  weigh  in  scales  and 
count  up  in  cash-book. 

Now  we  come  to  the  point  of  definite  benefit 
for  you  in  all  of  this;  for,  mind  you,  this 
paper  is  for  your  own  selfish  interests.  Even 
when  I  am  advising  the  beatitudes  of  life,  I 
am  doing  it  from  the  view-point  of  your  prac- 
tical well-being. 

Think,  then,  of  the  incalculable  advantage 
of  having  at  your  beck  and  call  a  friend  who 
has  proved  that  he  knows  the  highways  and 
byways  of  the  world  by  having  successfully 
found  his  way  around  among  them. 

Think  of  the  value  of  having  such  a  guide 
for  your  daily  counselor.  Think  of  how  the 
worth  of  such  a  man's  directions  to  you  is 
multiplied  infinitely  by  the  fact  that  he  cares 
more  for  your  success  than  for  any  other  one 

72 


THE   OLD   HOME 

thing  in  the  world.  When  you  have  thought 
over  all  these  things,  you  will  begin  to  have 
some  faint  understanding  not  only  of  what 
you  owe  your  father,  but  of  his  practical  help- 
fulness to  you. 

A  father  is  an  opportunity — a  young  man's 
first  opportunity  in  life,  and  the  greatest  op- 
portunity he  will  ever  have.  That  father  has 
made  lots  of  mistakes,  no  doubt;  but  you  will 
never  make  the  mistakes  he  made  if  you  will 
listen  to  him.  He  has  made  many  successes, 
perhaps;  but  his  successes  are  only  the  acorns 
to  the  oaks  of  your  deeds,  if  you  will  but  take 
his  words  as  seed  for  your  future  enterprises. 

And  let  me  tell  you  this:  Nothing  makes 
a  better  impression  upon  the  world  that  is 
watching  you — watching  you  very  cunningly, 
young  man — as  to  be  on  good  terms  with  your 
father.  I  have  known  more  than  one  young 
man  to  be  discredited  in  business  because  it 
was  generally  understood  that  he  "  could  not 
get  along  with  the  old  man." 

You  see,  the  world  thinks  that  it  is  the  boy's 
fault  when  there  is  friction  between  father  and 
son — and  ordinarily  the  world  is  right.  Some- 
times, of  course,  the  world  itself  "  cannot  get 
along  with  father";  in  such  cases  it  does  not 
blame  the  son  for  not  getting  along  with  him 
6  73 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

either.    But  that  is  not  your  situation,  you  who 
read  this  paper. 

"  How  does  get  along  with  his  fa- 
ther? "  was  asked  of  a  certain  young  man 
of  great  distinction  in  letters.  "  Oh,  they 
are  great  friends!  "  was  the  answer.  "  Friends 
through  duty  or  comradery?  "  persisted  the 
querist.  "  Comradery,  affection,  affinity. 
They  are  the  greatest  chums  in  the  world,"  was 
the  answer. 

I  wish  I  could  give  you  the  name  of  that 
man.  It  is  known  in  every  civilized  country. 
No  wonder  he  became  the  great  power  into 
which  he  has  developed.  His  whole  life  is  a 
blessing  and  a  benediction  to  all  with  whom 
he  comes  in  contact — parents,  wife,  children, 
countrjmien,  the  world.  No  wonder  his  brain 
is  canny  with  resourceful  wisdom;  no  wonder 
that  good  red  human  blood  pours  at  full  tide 
through  artery  and  vein. 

The  man  I  have  in  mind,  and  whom  I  am 
describing,  is  a  great  man,  and  his  father  be- 
fore him  was  a  great  man  too.  His  success 
has  been  monumental.  Yet  his  is  no  candy 
manhood.  His  is  no  smooth  conduct.  He  is 
"  neither  sugar  nor  salt,  nor  somebody's 
hone}^"  to  get  down  (or  up)  to  the  pictur- 
esque phrase  of  the  common  household. 

74 


THE   OLD   HOME 

He  is  the  sort  of  man  who  would  confound 
sharp  practises  of  the  crafty;  or  "call  the 
bluff"  of  financial  gamester;  or  walk  uncon- 
cerned where  physical  danger  calls  for  nerve 
of  steel  and  lion's  heart;  or  fling  at  affected 
fop  rapier  sentences  that  cut  deep  through  the 
very  quick  of  his  pretenses. 

I  cite  this  example  merely  to  show  you  that 
you  lose  nothing  of  independence  or  daring,  or 
any  of  those  qualities  which  young  men  so 
prize  (and  properly  prize) ,  by  being  on  terms 
of  intellectual  and  heart  partnership  with  your 
father. 

Don't  tell  us  that  he  won't  let  j^ou  be  on 
such  terms  wath  him.  Show  yourself  willing 
and  worth  while,  and  your  father  would 
rather  spend  his  extra  hours  with  you  than 
at  the  theater.  But  you  have  got  to  show 
yourself  worth  while.  No  whining  willing- 
ness, no  soft  and  pretended  desire,  no  affected 
making  up  to  "  the  governor,"  will  answer 
at  all. 

You  have  got  to  "  make  good  "  with  the 
American  father,  young  man. 

He  has  "  been  through  the  mill,"  until  the 
softness  is  pretty  well  ground  out  and  little 
remains  but  the  granite-like  muscle  of  man- 
hood.   He  is  a  pretty  stern  proposition ;  and  if 

75 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

there  is  anything  he  won't  stand  it  is  pretense, 
make-beHeve.  But  show  yourself  worthy  of 
him  and  wilhng  for  his  comradeship,  and  you 
have  begun  hf  e  with  the  best,  readiest,  bravest 
partner  you  will  ever  have. 

From  all  of  this  you  have  yourself  deduced 
the  fact  that  you  do  not  "  know  more  than  the 
old  folks."  If  you  have  not,  go  ahead  and 
deduce  it  right  now ;  for  you  do  not  know  more 
than  they  do.  They  have  lived  so  much  longer 
than  you  have  that  the  accretion  of  daily  ex- 
perience has  given  them  a  variety  of  informa- 
tion beside  which  your  book  knowledge  is  a 
sort  of  wooden  learning,  lifeless  and  arti- 
ficial. 

The  very  fact  that  they  have  had  you  for 
a  child  and  brought  you  along  safely  thus  far 
is  proof  enough  of  this.  You  have  no  right 
to  challenge  the  knowledge  or  judgment  of 
either  of  your  parents  until  you  demonstrate 
that  you  can  do  as  well  or  better  than  they. 
And  that  will  be  some  years  yet,  will  it  not? 
No,  decidedly,  don't  "  get  too  smart  for 
father." 

Even  if  you  really  do  know  more  than  they, 
don't  let  either  of  the  old  folks  see  that  you 
think  so.  That  attitude  on  your  part  is  al- 
most indecent.     Be  grateful  also.     How  sin- 

76 


THE   OLD   HOME 

gular  that  ^^'here  young  men  have  every- 
thing to  be  thankful  for,  they  are  so  seldom 
grateful. 

When  parents  surround  them  with  every 
comfort,  and  make  what  are  luxuries  to  the 
millions  necessities  to  their  children;  when  the 
youth  is  furnished  clothes  made  by  the  tailor, 
and  money  to  spend  as  he  will,  and  special 
schools  and  the  most  expensive  university; 
when  he  is  given  vacations  at  seashore,  in 
mountains,  on  lake,  or  abroad,  instead  of  at 
good  hard  work,  as  the  sons  of  the  people 
must  spend  their  vacations;  when  a  year  or 
two  of  travel  follows  his  day  of  easy  gradua- 
tion; when  all  is  his  that  thought,  and  love, 
and  gold  can  give,  do  we  not  frequently  find 
the  young  man  unappreciative  of,  and  un- 
grateful for,  these  blessings? 

Such  a  man  usually  takes  it  for  granted  that 
he  ought  to  have  all  these  things,  and  a  good 
deal  more;  that  they  are  his  as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  no  thanks  due  to  those  who  gave 
them;  that  they  are  not  much,  after  all,  com- 
pared with  what  some  other  fellow  with  a  richer 
father,  and  a  mother  still  more  doting,  has 
and  spends.  "  Give  a  boy  too  much  money  to 
spend  and  he  won't  do  anything  else."  There 
are  some  exceptions  to  this,  notable  and  splen- 

77 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

did  exceptions,  but  they  are  so  few  that  they 
prove  the  rule. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  generally  true  that 
young  fellows  who,  in  comparison  with  the 
class  just  described,  have  nothing  to  be  thank- 
ful for;  who  must  earn  their  own  bread  and 
"  help  support  the  family  ";  who  "  work  their 
way  through  college,"  and  during  vacations 
put  in  a  good  year's  labor  to  get  the  money  for 
the  next  college  year ;  who,  the  day  after  grad- 
uation, thin  as  a  wolf  and  as  hardy,  must  start 
right  in  then  and  there  to  earn  that  very  day's 
meals  and  that  very  night's  resting-place — 
such  men,  as  a  usual  thing,  develop  the  glori- 
ous qualities  of  gratitude,  consideration,  and 
deference. 

There  is  "no  place  like  home  "  to  such  men, 
"be  it  ever  so  humble."  They  look  upon 
life  as  a  wonderful  and  splendid  thing,  for 
which  they  are  indebted  to  father  and  mother. 
Their  manliood's  morning  is  very  beautiful  to 
them;  but  its  light  is  not  one-hundredth  part 
as  beautiful  as  the  radiance  which  beams  upon 
them  from  the  eyes  of  one  dear  woman  whom 
they  call  mother — a  woman  wrinkled  and  worn 
and  wan,  perhaps,  but  to  such  sons  exquisitely 
lovely,  with  something  in  her  beauty  not  quite 
of  this  earth. 

78 


THE   OLD   HOME 

I  don't  quite  understand  the  psychology  of 
this  phenomenon,  and  never  knew  any  one  who 
did  understand  it;  but  every  one  of  the  scores 
of  observers  with  whom  I  have  talked  upon 
this  subject  have  noted  the  same  fact — the  too 
frequent  ingratitude  and  lack  of  appreciation 
of  young  fellows  who  have  everything  to  be 
grateful  for,  and  the  fine  appreciation  of  life 
shown  by  young  men  who,  in  comparison, 
have  nothing  to  be  grateful  for. 

Perhaps  it  is  a  lack  of  thought,  a  want  of 
analysis.  If  that  is  so  in  your  case,  young  man, 
get  to  thinking.  Instead  of  comparing  your- 
self with  some  other  man  who  has  more  things 
than  you,  compare  yourself  with  one  who  has 
fewer  things  than  you;  or,  better  still,  with 
one  who  hasn't  anything  at  all.  Then  you 
will  have  a  measure  for  the  debt  you  owe  to 
the  two  beings  who  have  given  and  are  giving 
you  all  you  have  or  will  have  for  a  great  many 
years  to  come. 

And  this  other  thing,  too :  When  you  begin 
to  be  grateful  for  these  things,  by  going 
through  some  such  intellectual  process  as  I 
have  indicated,  you  will  get  so  much  more 
pleasure  out  of  them  than  you  did  before  that 
you  will  hardly  be  able  to  realize  that  you 
are  the  same  man. 

79 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

Indeed,  you  will  not  be  the  same  man — you 
will  be  another  man,  a  bigger-hearted,  sanqr- 
minded,  gentler,  and  manlier  man.  You  will 
begin  to  be  the  kind  of  a  man  you  would  like 
to  be  if  you  sat  down  by  yourself  and  went  to 
work  to  make  yourself  over  again.  And  what 
a  wonder  you  would  be  if  you  could  make 
yourself  over!    Yes,  no  doubt! 

This  final  word:  The  day  must  come  when 
you  must  leave  the  old  home.  When  that  hour 
arrives,  do  not  try  to  tarry.  Go  right  out  into 
the  world.  Do  not  go  mournfully.  Give  the 
little  mother  a  smile  of  courage,  a  word  of 
cheer,  that  will  be  her  guaranty  that  her  boy 
is  going  to  be  a  "  grand  success,"  and  then 
— 7nake  good! 

You  will  hardly  get  away  from  the  old 
home  gate  when  you  will  stumble  over  an 
obstacle  and  fall  down.  Don't  turn  back  to 
the  old  home  to  be  comforted  and  helped.  Get 
up,  brush  the  dust  off,  forget  your  bruises,  and 
go  ahead.  Go  ahead,  and  look  where  you  are 
going. 

A  man  who  cannot  get  up  when  he  is 
knocked  down  is  of  no  use  in  the  world. 

Let  the  messages  that  you  send  back  to  the 
old  home  be  joyful — full  of  faith.  No  matter 
how  hard  a  time  you  are  having,  don't  let  "  the 

80 


THE   OLD   HOME 

folks  at  home  "  know  it.  Besides,  you  are  not 
having  such  a  hard  time,  after  all.  Hundreds 
of  thousands  of  other  men  who  have  become 
splendidly  successful  had  a  great  deal  harder 
time  than  you  are  having  or  ever  dreamed 
of  having.  Resolve  to  live  uj)  to  what  the 
home  which  reared  you  expects  of  you,  and 
work  like  mad  on  that  resolve,  and  you  will 
find  that  you  are  becoming  all  that  "  the  folks 
at  home  "  expected  of  you,  and  a  great  deal 
more. 

Go  back  to  the  old  home  as  often  as  you 
can;  but  be  sure  that  you  go  back  with  words 
of  cheer  and  a  story  of  things  done.  "  The 
folks  at  home  " — especially  the  mother — will 
want  to  hear  all  about  it.  There  may  be  wars 
whose  high-leaping  flames  illumine  all  the 
heavens;  there  may  be  political  campaigns  on 
hand  where  issues  of  fate  are  thrilling  the 
nerves  of  the  millions;  there  may  be  strange 
tidings  from  the  council-board  of  the  nations ; 
there  may  be  catastrophes  and  glories,  scourges 
and  blessings,  famine  or  opulence;  but  any 
and  all  of  these  are  of  no  interest  to  the 
mother,  compared  with  what  you  will  have 
to  tell  her  of  your  own  puny  little   deeds. 

They  are  not  puny  deeds  to  her;  they  are 
quite    the    most    considerable    performances 

81 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND    THE    WORLD 

given  in  all  the  universe  of  men.  For  you  did 
them,  you  know,  and  that  is  enough.  To  his 
mother  everj^  man  is  a  hero. 

So  let  your  tale  to  her  be  boldly  told  and 
lovingly.  And  be  sure  that  it  is  a  narrative 
of  purity,  things  honorable  and  of  good  re- 
port. Return  to  the  habit  of  your  youth,  and 
at  her  knees  establish  again  the  old  confes- 
sional. And  then,  with  your  secrets  handed 
over  to  her  and  safely  locked  in  her  heart, 
with  her  hand  of  blessing  on  your  head,  and 
her  smile  of  confidence,  pride,  and  approval 
glorifying  her  face,  resolve  to  again  go  out 
into  the  world  where  your  place  is,  and  be 
worthy  of  this  new  baptism  of  manhood  you 
have  again  received  in  the  sanctuary  of  the 
old  home. 

These  are  all  simple  things,  commonplace 
things,  things  easy  to  do.  They  have  nothing 
extraordinary  about  them.  And  yet,  if  you 
will  do  them,  the  world  will  back  you  as  a  win- 
ner against  men  who  are  a  great  deal  smarter 
than  you  are,  but  who  with  all  their  smartness 
are  not  smart  enough  to  do  these  plain  and 
kindly  things. 


82 


Ill 

THE    COLLEGE? 

1,  The  Young  Man  who  Goes 

CoLLis  P.  Huntington  was  a  notable  prac- 
tical success.  He  was  wise  with  the  hard  wis- 
dom of  the  world,  and  he  had  the  genius  of 
the  great  captain  for  choosing  men.  No  busi- 
ness general  ever  selected  his  lieutenants  with 
more  accurate  judgment.  His  opinion  on 
men  and  affairs  was  always  worth  while.  And 
he  thought  young  men  who  meant  to  do  any- 
thing except  in  the  learned  professions  wasted 
time  by  going  to  college. 

So  when,  searching  for  my  final  answer  to 
the  question  this  moment  being  asked  by  so 
many  young  Americans,  "  Shall  I  go  to  col- 
lege," I  answer  in  the  affirmative,  I  do  so 
admitting  that  a  negative  answer  has  been 
given  by  men  whose  opinions  are  entitled  to 
the  greatest  possible  respect. 

I  admit,  too,  that  nearly  every  city — yes, 
almost  every  town — contains  conspicuous  il- 
lustrations of  men  who  learned  how  to  "  get 
there  "  by  attending  the  school  of  hard  knocks. 

83 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

Certainly  some  of  the  most  distinguished  busi- 
ness careers  in  New  York  have  been  made  by 
« young  men  who  never  saw  a  college. 

You  find  the  same  thing  in  every  town.  I 
have  a  man  in  mind  whose  performances  in 
business  have  been  as  solid  as  they  are  as- 
tonishing. Twenty  years  ago  he  was  a  street- 
car conductor;  to-day  he  controls  large  prop- 
erties in  which  he  is  himself  a  heavy  owner; 
and  a  dozen  graduates  of  the  high-class  uni- 
versities of  Europe  and  America  beg  the 
crums  that  fall  from  the  table  of  his  affairs. 

In  his  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Address  Wendell 
Phillips  cleverly  argues  that  the  reformers  of 
the  world,  and  most  of  those  whose  memories 
are  the  beloved  and  cherished  treasures  of  the 
race,  were  men  whose  vitality  had  not  been 
reduced  by  college  training,  and  whose  kin- 
ship with  the  people  and  oneness  with  the  soil 
had  not  been  divorced  by  the  artificial  refine- 
ment of  a  college  life.  But  Phillips  was  bitter 
— even  fanatical — on  this  subject;  and  was, 
in  himself,  a  living  denial  of  his  own  doctrine. 

Remember,  then,  you  who  for  any  reason 
have  not  had  those  years  of  mental  discipline 
called  "  a  college  education,"  that  this  does  not 
excuse  you  from  doing  great  work  in  the  world. 
Do  not  whine,   and  declare  that  you  could 

84 


THE    COLLEGE? 

have  done  so  much  better  if  you  had  "  only 
had  a  chance  to  go  to  college."  You  can  be 
a  success  if  you  will,  college  or  no  college.  At 
least  three  of  those  famous  masters  of  busi- 
ness which  Chicago,  the  commercial  capital  of 
the  continent,  has  given  to  the  world,  and 
whose  legitimate  operations  in  tangible  mer- 
chandizing are  so  vast  that  they  are  almost 
weird,  had  no  college  education,  and  very  little 
education  of  any  kind. 

I  think,  indeed,  that  very  few  of  America's 
kings  of  trade  ever  attended  college.  There 
are  the  masters  of  railroad  management,  too. 
Few  of  them  have  been  college  men,  although 
the  college  man  is  now  appearing  among 
them — witness  President  Cassatt,  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania System,  a  real  Napoleon  of  railroad- 
ing, who,  I  hear,  is  a  graduate  of  the  Ger- 
man universities  and  of  American  polytechnic 
schools. 

Burns  did  not  go  to  college.  Neither  did 
Shakespeare. 

Some  of  our  greatest  lawyers  "  read  law  " 
in  the  unrefined  but  honest  and  strength- 
ening environment  of  the  old-time  law  office. 
Lincoln  was  not  a  college  man;  neither  was 
Washington.  So  do  not  excuse  yourself  to 
your  family  and  the  world  upon  the  ground 

.  85 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

that  you  never  had  a  college  education.  That 
is  not  the  reason  why  you  fail. 

You  can  succeed — I  repeat  it — college  or 
no  college ;  all  you  have  to  do  in  the  latter  case 
is  to  put  on  a  little  more  steam.  And  remem- 
ber that  some  of  the  world's  sages  of  the  prac- 
tical have  closed  their  life's  wisdom  with  the 
deliberate  opinion  that  a  college  education  is  a 
waste  of  time,  and  an  over-refinement  of  body 
and  of  mind. 

You  see,  I  am  trying  to  take  into  account 
every  possible  view  of  this  weighty  question; 
for  I  know  how  desperate  a  matter  it  is  to  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  my  young  countrymen. 
I  know  how  earnestly  they  are  searching  for 
an  answer;  how  hard  it  will  be  for  hosts 
of  them  to  obey  an  affirmative  answer;  how 
intense  is  the  desire  of  the  great  majority 
of  young  Americans  to  decide  this  question 
wisely.  For  most  of  them  have  no  time  to 
lose,  little  money  to  spend  and  none  to  waste, 
no  energy  to  spare,  and  yet  are  inspired  with 
high  resolve  to  make  the  best  and  most  of 
life.  And  I  know  how  devoutly  they  pray 
that,  in  deciding,  they  may  choose  the  better 
part. 

Still,  with  all  this  in  mind,  my  advice  is  this : 
Go  to  college.    Go  to  the  best  possible  college 

86 


THE    COLLEGE? 

for  you.  Patiently  hold  on  through  the  stern- 
est discipline  you  can  stand,  until  the  course 
is  comj)leted.  It  will  not  be  fatal  to  your  suc- 
cess if  you  do  not  go;  but  you  will  be  better 
prepared  to  meet  the  world  if  you  do  go.  I 
do  not  mean  that  your  mind  will  be  stored  with 
much  more  knowledge  that  will  be  useful  to 
j^ou  if  you  go  through  college  than  if  you 
do  not  go  through  college. 

Probably  the  man  who  keeps  at  work  at  the 
business  he  is  going  to  follow  through  life, 
during  the  years  when  other  men  are  studying 
in  college,  acquires  more  information  that  will 
be  "  useful  "  to  him  in  his  practical  career. 
But  the  college  man  who  has  not  thrown  away 
his  college  life  comes  from  the  training  of  his 
alma  mater  with  a  mind  as  highly  disciplined 
as  are  the  wrist  and  eye  of  the  skilled  swords- 
man. 

Nobody  contends  that  a  college  adds  an 
ounce  of  brain  power.  But  if  college  opportu- 
nities are  not  wasted,  such  mind  as  the  student 
does  have  is  developed  up  to  the  highest  pos- 
sible point  of  efficiency.  The  college  man 
who  has  not  scorned  his  work  will  understand 
any  given  situation  a  great  deal  quicker  than 
his  brother  who,  with  equal  ability,  has  not 
had  the  training  of  the  university. 

87 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

A  man  who  has  been  instructed  in  boxing  is 
more  than  a  match  for  a  stronger  and  braver 
man  unskilled  in  what  is  called  the  "  manly 
art."  That  is  your  college  and  non-college 
man  over  again  with  muscle  substituted  for 
brain. 

Five  years  ago  I  saw  the  soldiers  of  Japan 
going  through  the  most  careful  training. 
They  were  taught  how  to  march,  how  to 
charge,  how  to  do  everything.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  bayonet  exercises  which  an  officer 
and  myself  chanced  upon.  They  were  con- 
ducted with  all  the  ferocity  of  a  real  fight; 
no  point  was  neglected. 

With  all  their  fatalism  and  the  utter  fear- 
lessness thereof,  the  Japanese  could  not  have 
bested  the  Russians  if  to  their  courage  and 
devotion  they  had  not  added  years  of  pains- 
taking drill,  which  an  American  soldier  would 
have  considered  an  unnecessary  hardship.  Very 
well.  A  college  education  is  precisely  that 
kind  of  a  preparation  for  the  warfare  of  life. 

But  mind  you,  these  Japanese  soldiers  and. 
their  officers  were  in  earnest.  They  meant  to 
show  the  world  that,  small  as  they  are  in 
stature  and  recent  as  their  adoption  of  modern 
methods  has  been,  they  nevertheless  would  try 
to  be  the  highest  type  of  soldier  that  ever 

88 


THE    COLLEGE? 

marched  to  a  battle-field.  If  you  go  to  col- 
lege, young  man,  you  have  got  to  be  in  earnest, 
too.  You  have  got  to  say  to  yourself,  "  I  am 
going  to  make  more  out  of  what  is  in  me  than 
any  man  with  like  ability  ever  did  before." 
You  cannot  dawdle — remember  that. 

Imagine  every  day,  and  every  hour  of  every 
day,  that  you  are  in  the  real  world  and  in  the 
real  conflicts  thereof,  instead  of  in  college  with 
its  practise  conflicts,  and  handle  yourself  pre- 
cisely as  you  would  if  your  whole  career  de- 
pended upon  each  task  set  for  you.  If  you 
mean  to  go  to  college  for  the  principal  pur- 
pose of  idling  around,  wearing  a  small  cap 
and  good  clothes,  and  being  the  adoration  of 
your  mother  and  your  sisters  on  your  vacation, 
you  had  a  good  deal  better  be  at  work  at  some 
gainful  occupation.  College  is  not  helping 
you  if  that  is  what  you  are  doing.  It  is  hurt- 
ing you. 

Go  to  college,  therefore,  say  I;  but  go  to 
college  for  business.  Those  drill  years  are 
the  most  important  ones  of  your  life. 

Be  in  earnest,  therefore.  I  know  I  have 
said  that  before;  yes,  and  I  am  going  to  say 
it  again.  For  if  you  are  not  going  to  be 
in  earnest,  quit — get  out.  Resolve  to  get  ab- 
solutely everything  there  is  to  be  had  out  of 
7  89 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

your  college  experience,  and  then  get  it.  Get 
it,  I  say,  for  that  is  what  you  will  have  to  do. 
Nobody  is  going  to  give  it  to  you. 

The  spirit  with  which  you  enter  college  is 
just  as  important  as  going  to  college  at  all.  It 
is  more  important.  For  if  a  man  has  the  spirit 
that  will  get  for  him  all  that  a  college  educa- 
tion has  to  give,  it  will  also  make  him  triumph 
in  a  contest  with  the  world,  even  if  he  does  not 
get  his  college  education.  It  will  only  be  a 
little  harder  for  him,  that  is  all. 

But  if  a  man  has  not  that  mingled  will  and 
wish  for  a  college  education  flaming  through 
his  young  veins  that  makes  him  capable  of  any 
sacrifice  to  get  through  college,  I  do  not  see 
what  good  a  college  education  will  do  him — 
no,  nor  any  other  kind  of  an  education.  The 
quicker  such  a  man  is  compelled  to  make  his 
own  living  without  help  from  any  source,  the 
better  for  him. 

So  if  you  mean  business,  but  have  not  de- 
cided whether  it  is  better  for  you  to  go  to  col- 
lege or  not  to  go  to  college,  settle  the  question 
to-day  by  deciding  to  go  to  college.  Then  pick 
your  college.  That  is  as  important  a  matter 
as  choosing  your  occupation  in  life.  One 
college  is  not  as  good  as  another  for  you.  A 
score  of  colleges  may  be  equally  excellent  in 

90 


THE    COLLEGE? 

the  ability  of  their  faculties,  in  the  perfection 
of  their  equipment. 

But  each  has  its  own  atmosphere  and  tradi- 
tions; each  has  its  personality,  if  you  may  ap- 
ply such  a  word  to  an  institution.  And  you 
want  to  select  the  place  where  your  mental 
roots  will  strike  in  the  earth  most  readily,  and 
take  from  the  intellectual  soil  surrounding  you 
the  greatest  possible  amount  of  mental  force 
and  vigor. 

Take  plenty  of  time  to  find  out  which,  out 
of  a  score  of  colleges,  is  the  best  one  for  you. 
Study  their  "catalogues";  talk  to  men  who 
have  been  to  these  various  institutions;  read 
every  reputable  article  you  can  find  about 
them.  Keep  this  up  long  enough,  and  you 
will  become  conscious  of  an  unreasoned  knowl- 
edge that  such  and  such  an  institution  is  not 
the  place  for  you  to  go.  Finally,  write  to  the 
president  or  other  proper  officer  of  the  col- 
leges you  are  thinking  of  attending. 

You  will  get  some  sort  of  an  answer  from 
each  of  them;  but  if  it  is  only  three  lines,  that 
answer  will  breathe  something  of  the  spirit  of 
the  institution.  Of  course  the  great  univer- 
sities will  answer  you  very  formally,  or  per- 
haps not  at  all.  Their  attitude  is  the  imper- 
sonal one.     They  say  to  the  world,  and  to 

91 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

the  youth  thereof:  "  Here  we  are.  We  are 
perfectly  prepared.  We  have  on  hand  a  com- 
plete stock  of  education.  Take  it,  or  leave  it. 
It  is  not  of  the  slightest  concern  to  us." 

I  have  no  quarrel  with  that  attitude.  These 
institutions  are  going  on  the  assumption  that 
you  already  have  character  and  purpose;  that 
you  already  know  what  you  are  about.  They 
are  ready  for  you  if  you  are  ready  for  them. 
And  if  you  are  not  ready  for  them,  if  you  are 
only  a  rich  person  or  a  mere  stroller  along  the 
highways  of  life,  what  is  that  to  them?  Why 
should  it  be  an^i:hing  to  them?  Why  should 
it  be  an\i:hing  to  anybodj^?  The  world  is 
busy,  young  man ;  you  have  got  to  make  your- 
self worth  while  if  it  pays  any  attention  to  you. 

INIaking  sure  always  that  the  college  of  your 
choice  is  well  equipped,  select  the  one  where 
you  \\dll  feel  the  most  at  home.  Other  things 
being  equal,  go  where  there  are  the  most  men 
in  whose  blood  burns  the  fire  which  is  racing 
through  your  veins.  Go  to  the  college  in 
whose  atmosphere  you  will  find  most  of  the 
ozone  of  earnestness.  It  may  well  be  tliat  you 
will  find  this  thing  in  one  of  the  smaller  col- 
leges, of  which  there  are  so  many  and  such 
excellent  ones  scattered  all  over  the  Nation. 

Certainly  these  little  colleges  have  this  ad- 
92 


THE    COLLEGE? 

vantage:  their  students  are  usually  very  poor 
boys,  who  have  to  struggle  and  deny  them- 
selves to  go  to  college  at  all — young  men 
whose  determination  to  do  their  part  in  the 
world  is  so  great  that  hunger  is  a  small  price 
to  pay  for  that  pre^^aration  which  they  think 
a  college  education  gives  them;  men  whose 
resolve  to  "  make  something  of  themselves," 
as  the  common  saying  goes,  is  so  irresistible 
that  they  simply  cannot  endure  to  stay  away 
from  college. 

Such  men  have  hard  muscles,  made  strong 
and  tense  by  youthful  toil;  great  lungs,  ex- 
panded by  plow  in  field  or  ax  in  forest ;  nerves 
of  steel,  tempered  by  days  of  labor  in  open 
air  and  nights  of  di'eamless  slumber,  which 
these  hypnotics  of  Nature  always  induce. 
These  men  have  strong,  firm  mouths;  clear, 
honest  eyes,  that  look  you  straight  and  fair; 
and  a  mental  and  moral  constitution  wliich  fit 
these  physical  manifestations  of  it. 

And  these  are  just  the  kind  of  men  among 
whom  you  ought  to  spend  your  college  life, 
if  you  are  one  of  the  same  kind — and  perhaps 
much  more  if  you  are  not. 

Fellows  like  these  believe  in  the  honor  of 
men,  the  virtue  of  women,  the  sacredness  of 
home,  and  that  the  American  people  have  a 

93 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

mission  in  the  world  marked  out  for  them  by 
the  Ruler  of  the  Universe — though  this  is  not 
a  fair  distinction  since  all  Americans  believe  in 
these  high,  sweet  things  of  life  and  destiny.  It 
is  a  faith  common  to  all  Americans  and  mon- 
opolized by  no  class. 

But  you  know  what  kind  of  a  man  you 
are,  and  therefore  you  will  find  out,  if  j^ou 
search  with  care,  what  college  is  the  best  for 
you.  I  insist  upon  the  importance  of  this  se- 
lection. It  is  a  real,  practical  jDroblem.  You 
will  never  have  a  more  important  task  set  you 
in  class-room,  or  even  throughout  your  entire 
life,  than  to  select  the  college  which  is  going 
to  do  you  the  most  good.  So  go  about  it  with 
all  the  care  that  you  would  plan  a  campaign 
if  you  were  a  general  in  the  field,  or  conduct 
an  experiment  if  you  were  a  scientist  in  the 
laboratory. 

This  one  word  of  definite  helpfulness  on  this 
subject:  Do  not  choose  any  particular  college 
because  you  want  to  be  known  as  a  Yale  man, 
a  Harvard  man,  a  Princeton  man,  or  any  other 
kind  of  man.  Remember  that  the  world  cares 
less  than  the'snap  of  its  fingers  what  particular 
college  man  you  are. 

What  the  world  cares  about  it  that  you 
should  be  a  man — a  real  ma7i. 

94) 


THE    COLLEGE? 

It  won't  help  you  a  bit  in  the  business  of 
your  Hfe  to  have  it  known  that  you  graduated 
from  any  particular  college  or  university.  If 
you  are  in  politics,  it  won't  give  you  a  vote; 
if  a  manufacturer,  it  will  not  add  a  brick  to 
your  plant;  if  a  merchant,  it  will  not  sell  a 
dollar's  worth  of  your  goods. 

Nobody  cares  what  college  you  went  to. 
Nobody  cares  w^hether  you  went  to  college 
at  all. 

But  everybody  cares  whether  you  are  a  real 
force  among  men;  and  everybody  cares  more 
and  more  as  it  becomes  clearer  and  clearer 
that  you  are  not  only  a  force,  but  a  trained, 
disciplined  force.  That  is  why  you  ought  to 
go  to  college — to  be  a  trained,  disciplined 
force.  But  how  and  where  you  got  your 
power — the  world  of  men  and  women  is 
far  too  interested  in  itself  to  be  interested 
in  that. 

When  you  do  finally  go  to  college,  take 
care  of  yourself  like  a  man.  I  am  told  that 
there  are  men  in  college  who  have  valets  to 
attend  them,  their  rooms,  and  their  clothes. 
Think  of  that!  Don't  do  anything  like  that, 
even  if  you  are  a  hundred  times  a  million- 
aire. Of  course  you  won't — you  who  read  this 
— because  not  one  out  of  ten  thousand  young 

95 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

Americans  can  afford  to  have  a  valet  in  college 
— thank  heaven ! 

Don't  do  any  of  the  many  things  which  be- 
long to  that  life  of  self-indulgence  of  which 
the  keeping  of  a  valet  in  college  is  a  flaring 
illustration.  Don't  let  kind  friends  litter  up 
your  room  with  a  lot  of  cushions,  and  such 
stuff.  The  world  for  which  you  are  preparing 
is  no  "  cushiony  "  place,  let  me  tell  you ;  and  if 
you  let  luxury  relax  your  nerves  and  soften 
your  brain  tissues  and  make  your  muscles 
mushy,  a  similar  mental  and  moral  condition 
will  develop.  And  then,  when  you  go  out  into 
real  life,  you  will  find  some  sturdy  young  bar- 
barian, with  a  Spartan  training  and  a  merci- 
less heart,  elbowing  you  clear  off  the  earth. 

For,  mark  you,  these  strong,  fearless,  mas- 
terful young  giants,  who  are  every  day  ma- 
turing among  the  common  people  of  America, 
ask  no  quarter  and  give  none;  and  it  is  such 
fellows  you  must  go  up  against.  And  when 
you  do  go  up  against  them  there  will  be  no 
appealing  to  father  and  mother  to  help  you. 
Father  and  mother  cannot  help  you.  Xobody 
can  help  you  but  yourself.  You  will  find  that 
the  cushion  business,  and  the  mandolin  busi- 
ness, and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  do  not  go  in 
real  life. 

96 


THE    COLLEGE? 

Consider  West  Point  and  Annapolis.  My 
understanding  is  that  the  men  whom  the  Na- 
tion is  training  there  for  the  skilled  defense  of 
the  Republic,  and  who  therefore  must  be  de- 
veloped into  the  very  highest  types  of  effec- 
tive manhood,  are  taught  to  clean  and  polish 
their  own  shoes,  make  their  own  beds,  care  for 
their  own  guns,  and  do  everything  else  for 
themselves.  Do  you  think  that  is  a  good  train- 
ing for  our  generals  and  admirals  ?  Of  course 
you  do. 

Well,  then,  do  you  imagine  that  you  are 
going  to  have  an  easier  time  in  your  business 
or  profession  than  the  officers  in  our  army  and 
navy  ?  Don't  you  believe  it  for  a  minute.  You 
are  not  going  to  have  an  easier  time  than  they. 
You  are  going  to  have  a  great  deal  harder 
time.  And  by  "  hard  time  "  I  do  not  mean 
an  unhappy  time.  Unhappy  time!  What 
greater  joy  can  there  be  for  a  man  than  the 
sheer  felicity  of  doing  real  work  in  the  world? 

While  I  am  on  this  subject  I  might  as  well 
say  another  thing :  Do  not  tliink  that  you  have 
got  to  smoke  in  order  to  be  or  look  like  a  college 
man.  A  pipe  in  the  mouth  of  a  youth  does 
not  make  him  look  like  a  college  man,  or  any 
other  kind  of  man.  It  merely  makes  him 
look  absurd,  that  is  all.    And  if  there  is  ever 

97 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

a  time  on  earth  when  you  do  not  need  the 
stimulus  of  tobacco,  it  is  while  you  are  in 
college. 

Tobacco  is  a  wonderful  vegetable.  It  is, 
I  believe,  the  only  substance  in  the  world 
which  is  at  the  same  time  a  stimulant  and  a 
narcotic,  a  heart  excitant  and  a  nerve  sedative. 
Very  well.  You  are  too  young  yet  to  need  a 
heart  stimulant,  too  young  to  need  anything 
to  quiet  your  nerves. 

If  at  your  tender  age  your  nerves  are  so  in- 
flamed that  they  must  be  soothed,  and  if  at 
the  very  sunrise  of  your  life  your  heart  is  so 
feeble  that  it  must  be  forced  with  any  stimu- 
lant, you  had  better  quit  college.  College  is 
no  place  for  you  if  you  are  such  a  decadent; 
yes,  and  you  will  find  the  world  a  good  deal 
harder  place  than  college. 

Cut  out  tobacco,  therefore.  For  a  young 
fellow  in  college  it  is  a  ridiculous  affectation- 
nothing  more.  Why?  Because  you  do  not 
need  tobacco;  that  is  why.  At  least  you  do 
not  need  it  yet.  The  time  may  come  when 
you  will  find  tobacco  helpful,  but  it  will  not 
be  until  you  have  been  a  long  while  out  of  col- 
lege. As  to  whether  tobacco  is  good  for  a  man 
at  any  stage  of  life  the  doctors  disagree,  and 
"where  doctors  disagree,  who  shall  decide?" 

98 


THE    COLLEGE? 

Ruskin  says  that  no  really  immortal  work 
has  been  done  in  the  world  since  tobacco  was 
introduced;  but  we  know  that  this  is  not  true. 
I  would  not  be  understood  as  having  a  preju- 
dice for  or  against  the  weed.  Whether  a  full- 
grown  man  shall  use  it  or  not  is  something  for 
himself  to  decide.  Personally  I  liked  it  so  well 
that  I  made  up  my  mind  a  long  time  ago  to 
give  it  up  altogether. 

But  there  is  absolutely  no  excuse  for  a 
man  young  enough  to  still  be  in  college  to 
use  it  at  all.  And  it  does  not  look  right.  For 
a  boy  to  use  tobacco  has  something  contempt- 
ible about  it.  I  will  not  argue  whether  this 
is  justified  or  not.  That  is  the  way  most 
people  feel  about  it.  Whether  their  feeling 
is  a  prejudice  or  not,  there  is  no  use  of  your 
needlessly  offending  their  prejudice.  And  this 
is  to  be  taken  into  account.  For  you  want  to 
succeed,  do  you  not?  Very  well.  You  can- 
not mount  a  ladder  of  air;  you  must  rise  on 
the  solid  stepping-stones  of  the  people's  de- 
served regard. 

And,  of  course,  you  will  not  disgrace  your- 
self by  drinking.  There  is  absolutely  nothing 
in  it.  If  you  have  your  fling  at  it  you  will 
learn  how  surely  Intoxication's  apples  of  gold 
turn  to  the  bitterest  ashes  in  the  eating.    But 

99 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

when  you  do  find  how  fruitless  of  everything 
hut  regrets  dissipation  is,  he  honest  with 
yourself  and  quit  it.  Be  honest  with  the 
mother  who  is  at  home  praying  for  you,  and 
quit  it.  But  this  is  weak  advice.  Be  honest 
with  that  mother  who  is  at  home  praying  for 
you,  and  neve?'  begin  it.  That's  the  thing — 
never  begin  it! 

In  a  word,  be  a  man;  and  you  will  be  very 
little  of  a  man,  very  little  indeed,  if  you  have 
got  to  resort  to  tobacco  and  liquor  to  add  to 
your  blood  and  conduct  that  touch  of  devilish- 
ness  which  you  may  think  is  a  necessary  part 
of  manliness.  Indeed,  between  fifteen  and 
thirty  years  of  age  your  veins  will  be  quite 
full  enough  of  the  untamed  and  desperate. 
I  do  not  object  in  the  least  to  this  wild  mus- 
tang period  in  a  man's  life. 

Is  a  fellow  to  have  no  fun?  you  will  say. 
Of  course,  have  all  the  fun  you  want;  the 
more  the  better.  But  if  you  need  stimulants 
and  tobacco  to  key  you  up  to  the  capacity  for 
fun,  you  are  a  solemn  person  indeed — "  solemn 
as  cholera  morbus  "  to  appropriate  an  Ameri- 
can newspaper's  description  of  one  of  our  pub- 
lic men.  What  I  mean  is  that  you  shall  do 
nothing  that  will  destroy  your  effectiveness. 
Play,  sports,  f  mi,  do  not  do  that ;  they  increase 

100 


THE    COLLEGE? 

your  effectiveness.  Go  in  for  athletics  all  you 
please;  but  do  not  forget  that  that  is  not  why 
you  are  going  to  college. 

Nobody  cares  how  mad  are  the  pranks  you 
play.  Take  the  curb  and  snaffle  off  of  the 
humors  of  your  blood  whenever  you  please; 
that  is  all  right.  I  never  took  much  stock  in 
the  outcry  against  hazing.  We  cannot  change 
our  sex,  or  the  nature  and  habits  of  it.  A 
young  man  is  a  male  animal  after  all,  and 
those  who  object  to  his  rioting  like  a  young 
bull  are  in  a  perpetual  quarrel  with  Nature. 

One  thing  I  must  warn  you  against,  and 
warn  you  supremely :  the  critical  habit  of  mind 
which  somehow  or  other  a  college  education 
does  seem  to  produce.  This  is  especially  true 
of  the  great  universities  of  our  East.  Nobody 
admires  those  splendid  institutions  more  than 
I  do — the  Nation  is  proud  of  them,  and  ought 
to  be.  The  world  of  learning  admires  them, 
and  with  reason.  Neither  the  English,  Scotch, 
nor  German  universities  surpass  them. 

But  has  not  ever}^  one  of  us  many  times 
heard  their  graduates  declare  that  a  mischief 
had  been  done  them  while  in  those  universi- 
ties by  the  cultivation  of  a  sneering  attitude 
toward  everybody — especiall^^  toward  every 
other  young  man — whom  they  see  doing  any- 

101 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

thing  actual,  positive,  or  constructive.  One  of 
the  best  of  these  men — a  man  with  a  superb 
mind  highly  trained — said  to  me  on  this  very- 
subject: 

"  I  confess  that  I  came  out  of  college  with 
my  initiative  atrophied.  I  was  afraid  to  do 
anything.  I  was  afraid  I  would  make  a  mis- 
take if  I  did  anything;  afraid  I  was  not  well 
enough  equipped  to  do  the  things  that  sug- 
gested themselves;  afraid  that  if  I  did  try 
to  do  anything  everybody  would  criticize  what 
I  did ;  afraid  that  my  old  college  mates  would 
laugh  at  me. 

"  And  I  confess  in  humility  that  I  myself 
acquired  the  habit  of  intellectual  suspicion 
toward  everybody  who  does  try  to  do  any  real 
thing.  I  find  myself  unconsciously  sneering 
at  young  men  who  are  accomplishing  things. 
Yes,  and  that  is  not  the  worst  of  it;  I  find 
myself  sneering  at  myself."  That  is  pathos — 
a  soul  doubting,  denying  itself.  Pathos!  j^es, 
it  is  tragedy! 

Confirm  this  confession  by  dropping  into  a 
club  where  such  men  gather  and  hearing  the 
talk  about  the  ones  who  are  doing  things  in 
the  world.  You  will  find  that  until  the  men 
who  are  doing  things  have  actually  done  them, 
done  them  well,  and  forced  hostility  itself  to 

102 


THE    COLLEGE? 

accept  wliat  they  have  done  as  good,  honest 
pieces  of  work,  the  talk  in  these  chibs  will  be 
that  of  harsh  criticism,  sneering  contempt,  and 
prophecy  of  failure.  Guard  against  that  habit 
night  and  day.  You  would  better  become  an 
opium-eater  than  to  permit  this  paralysis  of 
mind  and  soul. 

Believe  in  things.  Believe  in  other  young 
men.  When  you  see  other  young  men  trying 
to  do  things  in  business,  politics,  art,  the  pro- 
fessions, believe  in  the  honesty  of  their  pur- 
pose and  their  ability  to  do  well  what  they 
have  started  out  to  do.  Assume  that  thej^  will 
succeed  until  they  prove  that  they  cannot. 
Do  not  discourage  them.  Do  not  sneer  at 
them.  That  will  only  weaken  yourself.  Be- 
lieve in  other  young  men,  and  you  will  soon 
find  yourself  believing  in  yourself. 

That  is  the  most  important  thing  of  all: 
Belief  in  yourself.  Have  faith  in  yourself 
though  the  whole  universe  jeers.  "Trust  thy- 
self; every  heart  vibrates  to  that  iron  string," 
is  the  sentence  from  Emerson  we  used  to 
write  endlessly  in  our  copy-books  when  we 
went  to  school.  And  what  a  glorious  motto 
for  Americans  it  is! 

Remember  that  the  high  places,  now  filled 
by  men  whom  the  years  are  aging,  must  by 

103 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

and  by  be  filled  by  men  now  young.  Be  In  no 
haste  then — the  years  are  your  allies.  Time 
will  dispose  of  your  rivals.  Just  believe  in 
yourself,  and  work  and  wait  and  dare — and 
keep  on  working-,  waiting,  daring.  Never  let 
up;  and  never  doubt  your  ultimate  success. 
Think  of  Columbus,  Drake,  Magellan — the 
story  of  every  master-mariner  has  in  it  food 
for  your  necessary  egotism. 

Do  not  underestimate  your  strength.  There 
are  things  you  would  like  to  do ;  very  well,  sail 
in  and  do  them.  Do  not  be  afraid  of  making 
a  mistake.  Do  not  be  afraid  that  you  will 
fail.  Suppose  you  do  fail.  Millions  have 
failed  before  you.  I  am  repeating  this 
thought  and  I  wish  it  would  bear  repetition 
on  every  page. 

But  never  admit  to  yourself  that  you  have 
failed.  Try  it  again.  You  will  win  next 
time,  sure!  "If  at  first  you  don't  succeed, 
try,  try  again."  How  much  sense  there  is  in 
these  common  maxims  of  the  common  people, 
proverbs  not  written  by  any  one  man,  but 
axioms  that  spring  out  of  the  combined  in- 
telligence of  the  millions,  meditating  through 
the  centuries.  The  sayings  of  the  people  are 
always  simple  and  wise. 

What  a  fine  thing  it  was  that  Grant  said  at 
104 


THE    COLLEGE? 

Shiloli.  The  first  day  closed  in  disaster.  The 
enemy  had  all  but  driven  the  Union  Army  into 
the  river.  Not  a  great  distance  from  the 
banks  of  the  stream  they  will  point  out  to 
you  the  tree  under  which  Grant  stood,  cigar 
clinched  between  his  teeth,  directing  the  dispo- 
sition of  his  forces.  Some  one  reported  to 
liim  a  fresh  disaster. 

With  the  cahnness  of  the  certainty  that 
nobody  could  defeat  li'nn,  so  the  story  runs, 
Grant  replied,  "  Never  mind;  I  will  lick  them 
to-morrow."  Very  like  Caesar,  was  it  not? 
"  /  came,  I  saw,  /  conquered."  Or  that  other 
audacity  of  the  great  Roman,  when  the  ship 
was  actually  sinking:  "Fear  not,"  said  he; 
"  fear  not,  you  carry  Ccesar  and  his  fortunes." 

In  the  same  battle  it  is  credibly  reported 
that  Grant  rode  to  an  important  position  held 
by  a  large  number  of  his  troops  under  one 
of  his  most  trusted  generals.  "  What  have 
you  been  doing?  "  asked  Grant.  "  Fighting,  " 
answered  the  commander  in  charge  of  that 
position,  equally  laconic.  For  a  while  Grant 
surveyed  the  field,  and,  turning,  was  about 
to  ride  away.  "  But  what  shall  I  do  now, 
General?  "  asked  his  subordinate.  "  Keep  on 
fighting,"  answered  Grant. 

Do  not  get  into  the  habit  of  feeling  that 
8  105 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

you  are  not  sufficiently  well  equipped.  This 
comes  of  a  very  honest  intellectual  process — 
the  understanding,  as  we  get  njore  knowledge, 
of  how  very  little  we  really  know;  as  we  get 
more  skill,  of  how  very  unskilled  we  really 
are;  the  feeling  that,  high  as  our  training  is, 
there  is  some  one  else  more  highly  trained. 
Of  course  there  is;  but  if  that  is  any  excuse 
why  you  should  do  nothing — because  there  is 
some  person  who  can  do  it  better — you  will 
never  do  anything;  and  then  what  will  hap- 
pen when  all  of  the  other  fellows  who  "  could 
do  it  better  "  die? 

You  will  by  that  time  be  too  old  to  do  any- 
thing at  all.  So  sail  in  yourself,  and  pat  on 
the  back  every  other  young  fellow  that  sails  in. 
If  you  learn  the  law,  for  example,  understand 
that  the  way  to  acquire  the  art  of  practising 
law  is  to  2^f(ictise  it,  and  not  merely  watch 
somebody  else  practise  it.  Suppose  every 
young  man  with  a  scientific  mind  had  declined 
to  make  any  experiment  because  there  were 
abler  scientists  than  he:  how  many  Pasteurs 
and  Finsens  and  Marconis  and  Edisons  and 
Bells  would  the  world  have  had  ?  And  I  might 
go  on  for  an  hour  with  similar  illustrations. 

So  go  ahead  and  try  to  do  things  you  would 
like  to  do — things  Nature  has  fitted  you  to  do. 

106 


THE    COLLEGE? 

Believe  that  you  can  do  these  things.  For  you 
can,  you  know.  You  will  be  amazed  at  your 
own  powers.  If  you  do  not  believe  in  your- 
self, how  do  you  expect  the  world  to  believe 
in  you?  The  world  has  no  time  to  pet  and 
coddle  you,  remember  that.  So  get  the  habit 
of  faith  in  yourself  and  your  fellow  men.  Cul- 
tivate a  noble  intellectual  generosity.  It  is  a 
fine  tonic  for  mind  and  soul — a  fine  tonic  even 
for  the  body. 

The  doctors  say  that  envy,  malice,  jealousy, 
produce  a  distinctly  depressing  effect  uj^on  the 
nervous  system.  And  some  go  so  far  as  to 
say  that  if  intense  enough  these  states  of  mind 
actually  poison  the  secretions.  Don't,  there- 
fore, let  these  hj^ena  passions  abide  with  you. 
Be  generous.  Have  faith.  Make  mistakes  or 
achieve  success;  fail  or  win;  but  do  things. 
Share  the  common  lot.  Be  hearty.  Be  whole- 
souled.  Be  a  man.  Never  doubt  for  a  mo- 
ment that 

"  God's  in  his  heaven  ; 
All's  well  with  the  world." 

This  paper  has  been  devoted  to  your  mental 
and  moral  attitude  toward  your  college  and 
your  college  life,  rather  than  to  what  particu- 
lar things  you  will  study  there;  for  the  way 

107 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

you  look  at  your  college  and  the  life  you  lead 
there — the  spirit  with  which  you  enter  upon 
these  golden  years — is  the  main  thing.  The 
studies  themselves  are  the  methods  by  which 
you  apply  that  spirit  and  purpose. 

But  most  young  men  with  whom  I  have 
talked  want  to  know  what  "  courses  "  to  take, 
what  "  studies  "  to  specialize  upon.  No  gen- 
eral counsel  can  be  given  which  will  be  very 
valuable  to  you  upon  this  point.  But  I  will 
venture  this:  Do  not  choose  entirely  by  your- 
self what  things  you  will  study  in  college,  or 
what  "  courses  "  you  will  "  elect." 

You  are  so  apt  to  pick  the  things  that  are 
easiest  for  you,  and  not  the  things  that  are 
best  for  you.  Even  the  strongest-willed  men 
quite  unconsciously  select  those  things  that 
will  mean  the  least  work.  You  do  not  think 
you  are  selecting  certain  courses  or  studies  for 
this  reason,  and  perhaps  you  are  not ;  but  then, 
again,  perhaps  you  are,  and  you  cannot  your- 
self determine  that. 

Therefore  I  suggest  that  you  advise  with 
four  or  five  of  the  ablest  and  most  successful 
men  you  know.  Let  two  of  these  be  educa- 
tors, and  the  others  professional  or  business 
men.  Try  to  get  them  to  interest  themselves 
enough  in  you  to  take  the  time  to  think  the 

108 


THE    COLLEGE? 

whole  subject  over  very  carefully  as  applied  to 
your  particular  case,  and  to  take  further  time 
to  talk  it  over  thoroughly  with  you.  Then 
take  the  consensus  of  their  opinion,  unless 
your  own  view  is  decided,  clear,  and  emphatic. 

When  you  have  such  an  opinion  of  your 
own,  such  a  command  coming  from  the  sources 
of  your  own  mentality,  obey  that,  in  choosing 
your  studies  and  course,  rather  than  the  coun- 
sel of  any  other  man  or  number  of  men.  Yes, 
obey  that  voice  in  making  such  a  choice,  and 
in  making  every  choice  throughout  your  whole 
life;  for  it  is  the  voice  of  your  real  self — that 
inward  counselor  which  never  fails  those  who 
are  fortunate  enough  to  have  it. 

Of  course,  what  you  study  ought  to  be  in- 
fluenced by  what  you  intend  to  do  in  life. 
For  example,  the  career  of  civil  engineer  re- 
quires a  special  kind  of  preparation.  So  do  the 
various  occupations  and  professions.  But  no 
matter  what  particular  thing  you  intend  to 
do  through  life,  it  is  the  belief  of  most  men 
who  have  given  this  subject  any  thought  that 
a  young  man  ought  to  take  a  complete  general 
college  course,  and  supplement  this  by  special 
preparation  for  the  particular  work  to  which 
he  intends  to  devote  his  life. 

But  there  is  one  thing  to  which  the  attention 
109 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

of  young  Americans  should  be  directed  as  in- 
fluencing their  college  life.  Our  country  is  no 
longer  isolated.  We  can  no  longer  be  called 
a  provincial  people.  We  are  decidedly  a  very 
intimate  part  of  the  world.  Our  relations  with 
other  peoples  grow  closer  and  closer,  and  they 
will  keep  on  growing  closer  as  the  years  pass 
by.  A  thousand  Americans  travel  over  sea  to- 
day where  one  went  abroad  fifty  years  ago. 
Our  foreign  commerce  is  now  greater  in  a 
single  year  than  it  used  to  be  in  an  entire 
decade — yes,  and  quite  recently,  too,  so  swift 
our  increase. 

Other  countries  are  several  times  nearer  to 
us  than  they  were  even  in  the  last  generation. 
It  took  Emerson  almost  a  month  to  cross  the 
Atlantic.  Now  you  go  over  in  a  week.  You 
can  send  a  cablegram  to  any  country  in  the 
world  and  have  it  delivered,  translated  into  the 
language  of  the  person  to  whom  it  is  sent,  a 
great  deal  quicker  than  the  dawn  can  travel. 
Invention  has  made  snail-like  the  speed  of 
light. 

What  does  all  this  mean?  It  means  that  in 
our  relations  we  have  become  cosmopolitan. 
Therefore  we  Americans  ought  to  know  other 
languages  than  our  own.  Charles  Sumner 
said  that  if  he  had  to  go  through  college  again 

110 


THE    COLLEGE? 

he  would  study  nothing  but  modern  languages 
and  history.  Of  course  I  do  not  presume  to 
advise  you  who  are  reading  this  paper  to  do 
that,  although  it  is  precisely  what  I  should 
do  if  I  were  going  through  college  again.  But 
I  do  advise  you  to  do  this :  Acquire  at  least  two 
languages  in  addition  to  your  own — French 
and  German. 

Indeed,  you  ought  to  have  three  languages 
besides  your  own — French,  German,  and 
Spanish.  For,  consider !  Here  is  INIexico,  our 
next-door  neighbor — its  people  speak  Span- 
ish; Cuba,  a  kind  of  national  ward  of  ours — 
its  people  speak  Spanish.  The  people  of  our 
possessions  in  the  Pacific  speak  Spanish;  of 
Porto  Rico,  Spanish;  of  the  Central  and  South 
American  "  Republics  " — with  all  of  whom  we 
are  destined,  in  spite  of  ourselves,  to  have  rela- 
tions of  ever-increasing  intimacy — all  speak 
Spanish. 

And  French?  You  can  travel  all  over  Eu- 
rope intelligently  if  you  speak  French.  And 
German— the  language  that  is  going  to  make 
a  good  race  with  English  itself  as  the  commer- 
cial language  of  the  world  is  German.  For 
example,  you  can  go  all  through  commercial 
Russia  without  a  guide  if  you  speak  German. 
You  can  get  along  in  any  port  of  the  Orient 

111 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

if  you  speak  German.  So  you  can  if  you 
speak  English,  it  is  true.  And  think  of  how 
many  milhons  of  excellent  people  in  our  own 
country  are  still  German-speaking  (although 
our  German  citizens  are  so  splendidly  patriotic 
that  they  acquire  English  just  as  soon  as  they 
possibly  can). 

But  the  point  is,  that  your  usefulness  in 
every  direction  will  be  increased  by  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  languages.  The  other  things  that 
you  study  in  college  5''ou  will  largely  forget, 
anyhow;  and,  besides,  you  study  them  princi- 
pally for  the  mental  discipline  in  them.  But 
if  you  get  a  language,  and  get  it  correctly, 
thoroughly,  j'^ou  can  find  enough  use  for  it 
to  keep  brushed  up  on  it.  And  of  course  you 
can  read  it  all  the  time,  whether  you  have  a 
chance  to  talk  it  or  not. 

It  is  impossible  to  use  words  sufficiently  em- 
l^hatic  in  urging  the  study  of  history.  You 
cannot  get  too  much  history  in  college  and  out 
of  it.  Sir  William  Hamilton  was  right — his- 
tory is  the  study  of  studies.  The  man  who 
occupies  the  chair  of  history  in  any  college 
ought  to  be  not  only  an  able  man,  he  ought  to 
be  a  great  man.  If  ever  you  find  such  a  pro- 
fessor, make  yourself  agreeable  to  him,  absorb 
him,  possess  yourself  of  him. 

112 


THE    COLLEGE? 

This  final  word:  JNIingle  with  your  fellow 
students.  Talk  with  j)eople,  with  real  people; 
those  who  are  living  real  lives,  doing  real 
things  under  normal  and  natural  conditions. 
Do  all  this  in  order  that  you  may  keep  human ; 
for  you  must  not  get  the  habit  of  keeping 
to  your  room  and  believing  that  all  wisdom  is 
confined  to  books.  It  is  not.  All  wisdom  is 
not  confined  to  any  one  place.  Some  of  it  is  in 
books,  and  some  of  it  is  in  trees  and  the  earth 
and  the  stars. 

But  so  far  as  you  are  concerned  most  of  it 
is  in  human  touch  with  your  fellows;  for  it  is 
men  with  whom  you  must  work.  It  is  men 
who  are  to  employ  you.  It  is  men  whom  in 
your  turn  you  are  to  employ.  It  is  the  world 
of  men  which  in  the  end  you  are  to  serve.  And 
it  is  that  you  may  serve  it  well  that  you  are 
going  to  college  at  all,  is  it  not? 

Be  one  of  these  men,  therefore;  and  be  sure 
that  while  you  are  being  one  of  them,  you 
are  one  indeed.  Be  a  man  in  college  and  out, 
and  clear  down  to  the  end.  Be  a  man — that 
is  the  sum  of  all  counsel. 


113 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 


2.  The  Young  Man  wJio  Cannot  Go 

But  what  of  the  young  man  who  stands 
without  the  college  gates?  What  of  him 
upon  whom  Fate  has  locked  the  doors  of 
this  arsenal  of  power  and  life's  equipment? 
"  AVhy  does  not  some  one  give  counsel  and  en- 
couragement to  the  boy  who,  for  any  one  of 
a  thousand  reasons,  cannot  take  four  years  or 
four  months  from  his  life  of  continuous  toil 
in  order  to  go  to  college?  "  asked  a  young  man 
full  of  the  vitality  of  purpose,  but  to  whom 
even  the  education  of  our  high  schools  was  an 
absolute  impossibility. 

After  all,  for  most  of  our  eighty  millions, 
the  college  is  practically  beyond  their  reach. 
Even  among  those  young  men  who  have  the 
nerve,  ability,  and  ambition  to  "  work  their 
way  through  college,"  there  are  tens  of  thou- 
sands who  cannot  do  even  that,  no  matter  if 
they  were  willing  for  four  years  to  toil  at  saw- 
buck,  live  on  gruel,  and  dress  in  overalls  and 
hickory  shirt. 

I  have  in  mind  now  a  spirited  young  Amer- 
ican of  this  class  whose  father  died  when  his 
son  was  still  a  boy,  and  on  whose  shoulders, 

114 


THE    COLLEGE? 

therefore,  fell  the  duty  of  "  supporting  moth- 
er "  and  helpmg  the  girls,  even  before  his 
young  manhood  had  begim.  For  that  young 
man,  college  or  university  might  just  as  well 
be  Jupiter,  or  Saturn,  or  Arcturus. 

Very  well.  What  of  this  young  man? 
What  of  the  myriads  of  young  Americans 
like  him?  What  hope  does  our  complex  in- 
dustrial civilization,  which  every  day  grows 
more  intense,  hold  out  to  these  children  of  hard 
circmnstances,  whose  muscles  daily  strain  at 
the  windlasses  of  necessary  duty? 

I  repeat  the  question,  and  multiply  the 
forms  in  which  I  put  it.  It  is  so  pressingly  im- 
portant. It  concerns  the  most  abundant  and 
valuable  material  with  which  free  institutions 
work — the  neglected  man,  he  whom  fortime 
overlooks.  It  is  a  strange  weakness  of  human 
nature  that  makes  everybody  interested  in  the 
man  at  the  top,  and  nobody  interested  in  the 
man  at  the  bottom.  Yet  it  is  the  man  at 
the  bottom  upon  whom  our  Republican  insti- 
tutions are  established.  It  is  the  man  at  the 
bottom  whom  Science  tells  us  will,  by  the  irre- 
sistible processes  of  nature,  produce  the  high- 
est types  after  a  while. 

The  young  Bonaparte  proved  himself  a  very 
wizard  of  human  nature  when  he  exclaimed: 

115 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND   THE    WORLD 

*'  Every  soldier  of  France  carries  a  marshal's 
baton  in  his  knapsack."  And  did  not  the 
Master,  with  a  wisdom  wholly  divine,  choose 
as  the  seed-bearers  of  our  faith  throughout  the 
world  the  neglected  men?  Only  one  of  the 
apostles  was  what  we  would  term  to-day  a 
"  college  man " — St.  Luke,  the  physician. 
What  said  the  Teacher,  "  The  stone  which 
was  rejected  to  the  builder,  has  become  the 
chief  of  the  corner." 

Yes — the  neglected  man  is  the  important 
man.  We  do  not  think  so  day  by  day,  we  idle 
observers  of  our  Vanity  Fair,  we  curbstone 
watchers  of  the  street  parade.  We  think  it  is 
the  conspicuous  man  who  counts.  Our  atten- 
tion is  mostly  for  him  who  wears  the  epau- 
lettes of  prominence  and  favorable  condition. 
Therefore  most  articles,  papers,  and  volumes 
on  young  men  consider  onlj^  that  lucky  f  avor- 
ite-of-fortune-for-the-hour,  the  college  man. 

But  this  paper  is  addressed  to  the  neg- 
lected man.  I  would  have  speech  with  those 
young  men  with  stout  heart,  true  intention, 
and  good  ability,  who  labor  outside  those  col- 
lege walls  to  which  they  look  with  longing, 
but  may  not  enter. 

"  Every  soldier  of  France  carries  a  marshal's 
baton  in  his  knapsack."    Ah,  yes!    Very  well. 

116 


THE    COLLEGE? 

But  what  was  a  soldier  of  France  in  N^apo- 
leon's  time  to  a  young  American  to-day?  If 
Joubert,  from  an  ignorant  private  who  could 
not  write  his  name,  became  one  of  the  greatest 
generals  of  the  world's  greatest  commander, 
what  may  you  not  become!  Joubert  did  it  by 
deserving.  Use  the  same  method,  you.  There 
is  no  magic  but  merit. 

First,  then,  do  not  let  the  conditions  that  keep 
you  out  of  college  discourage  you.  If  such  a 
little  thing  as  that  depresses  you,  it  is  proof 
that  you  are  not  the  character  who  would  have 
succeeded  if  you  had  a  lifetime  of  college  edu- 
cation. If  you  are  discouraged  because  you 
cannot  go  to  college,  what  will  happen  to  you 
when  life  hereafter  presents  to  you  much 
harder  situations?  Remember  that  every 
strong  man  who  prevails  in  the  merciless  con- 
test with  events,  faces  conditions  which  to 
weaker  men  seem  inaccessible — are  inaccessible. 

But  it  is  the  scaling  of  these  heights,  or  the 
tunneling  through  them,  or  the  blasting  of 
them  out  of  their  way  and  out  of  existence, 
which  makes  these  strong  men  strong.  It  is 
the  overcoming  of  these  obstacles  day  after 
day  and  year  after  year,  as  long  as  life  lasts, 
which  gives  these  mighty  ones  much  of  their 
power. 

117 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

What  is  it  you  so  admire  in  men  whom 
you  think  fortunate — what  is  it  but  their  mas- 
tery of  adversity  after  adversity?  What  is 
that  which  you  call  success  but  victory  over 
untoward  events?  Do  not,  then,  let  your  reso- 
lution be  softened  by  the  hard  luck  that  keeps 
you  out  of  college.  If  that  bends  you,  you  are 
not  a  Damascus  blade  of  tempered  steel;  you 
are  a  sword  of  lead,  heavy,  dull,  and  yielding. 

Next  to  Collis  P.  Huntington,  the  railroad 
man  of  the  last  generation,  whose  ability  rose 
to  genius,  was  President  Scott  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania System.  He  thought,  with  Mr.  Hunt- 
ington, that  a  college  training  was  unneces- 
sary; and  his  own  life  demonstrated  that  the 
very  ultimate  of  achieving,  the  very  crest  of 
effort  and  reward  may  be  reached  by  men  who 
know  neither  Greek  nor  Latin,  nor  Science  as 
taught  in  schools,  nor  mental  philosophy  as  set 
down  in  books. 

Colonel  Scott  was  a  messenger-boy — just 
such  a  messenger-boy  as  you  may  see  any  day 
running  errands,  carrying  parcels,  doing  the 
humble  duties  of  one  who  serves  and  waits. 
From  a  messenger-boy  with  bundle  in  his 
hand,  to  the  general  of  an  industrial  army 
of  thousands  of  men,  and  the  directing  mind 
planning  the  expenditure  of  scores  of  mil- 

118 


THE    COLLEGE? 

lions  of  dollars  belonging  to  great  capitalists 
—such  was  the  career  of  Thomas  Scott. 

Very  well,  why  should  you  not  do  as  well? 
"  Because  my  competitors  have  college  educa- 
tion and  I  have  not,"  do  you  answer?  But, 
man,  Colonel  Scott  had  no  college  education. 
"  Because  the  other  fellows  have  friends  and 
influence  and  I  have  none,"  do  you  protest? 
But  neither  President  Scott  nor  most  monu- 
mental successes  had  friends  or  influence  to 
start  with.  Don't  excuse  yourself,  then. 
Come!    Buck  up!    Be  a  man! 

"  I  am  greatly  troubled,"  said  to  me  the  gen- 
eral superintendent  of  one  of  the  most  exten- 
sive railroad  systems  in  the  world  as  we  rode 
from  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  to  Chicago.  "  I  am 
greatly  troubled,"  said  he,  "  to  find  an  assist- 
ant superintendent.  There  are  now  under  me 
seven  young  engineers,  every  man  a  graduate 
of  a  college;  four  of  them  with  uncommon 
ability,  and  all  of  them  relatives  of  men  heav- 
ily interested  in  this  network  of  railroads.  But 
not  one  of  them  will  do.  Three  nights  ago  all 
of  them  happened  to  meet  in  Chicago.  While 
there  all  of  them  went  out  to  have  what  they 
called  '  a  good  time  '  together — drinking,  etc. 

"  That,  in  itself,  is  enough  to  blacklist  every 
man  for  the  position  of  my  assistant  and  my 

119 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND   THE    WORLD 

successor.  This  road  will  not  entrust  its  oper- 
ating management  to  a  man  who  wilfully 
makes  himself  less  than  his  best  every  day  and 
every  night.  Besides  this,  each  of  them  has 
some  defect.  One  is  brilliant,  but  not  steady; 
another  is  steady,  but  not  resourceful — not  in- 
ventive— and  so  forth  and  so  on.  We  are 
looking  all  over  the  United  States  for  the 
young  man  who  has  the  ability,  character, 
health,  and  habits  which  my  assistant  must 
have." 

This  general  superintendent,  under  whose 
orders  more  than  ten  thousand  men  daily  per- 
formed their  complex  and  delicately  adjusted 
functions,  is  fifty-five  years  of  age.  Now 
listen  to  this,  you  who  cannot  go  to  college: 
This  man  started  thirty-eight  years  ago  as  a 
freight-handler  in  Chicago  at  one  dollar  per 
day  for  this  same  railroad  company,  which  was 
then  a  comparatively  small  and  obscure  line. 
Ah!  but  you  say,  "  That  was  thirty-eight  years 
ago."  Yes,  and  that  is  the  trouble  with  you, 
is  it  not  ?  You  want  to  sta7't  in  as  superintend- 
ent of  a  great  system  or  the  head  of  a  mighty 
business,  do  you  not?  Very  well — get  that 
out  of  your  head.  It  cannot — it  ought  not — 
to  be  done. 

If  you  are  willing  to  work  as  hard  as  this 
120 


THE    COLLEGE? 

man  worked,  as  hard  as  President  Scott  of 
the  Pennsylvania  System  worked;  if  you  are 
wilhng  to  stay  right  by  your  job,  year  in,  year 
out,  through  the  weary  decades,  instead  of 
changing  every  thirty  minutes ;  if  you  are  will- 
ing to  wait  as  long  as  they ;  if  you  are  willing 
to  plant  the  seed  of  success  in  the  soil  of  good 
hard  work,  and  then  water  it  with  good  hard 
work,  and  attend  its  growth  with  good  hard 
work,  and  wait  its  flowering  and  fruitage  with 
patience,  its  flowering  and  fruitage  will  come. 
Doubt  it  not. 

For,  mark  you,  this  man  at  the  time  he  told 
me  that  his  System  was  looking  all  over  the 
United  States  for  a  young  man  capable  of 
being  his  assistant,  had  seven  high-grade  col- 
lege men  on  his  hands  at  that  very  moment. 
He  would  have  been  more  than  delighted  to 
have  taken  any  one  of  them. 

Also,  he  would  have  taken  a  man  who  had 
not  seen  a  college  just  as  quickly  if  he  could 
have  f  omid  such  a  one  who  knew  enough  about 
operating  a  railroad,  and  had  the  qualities  of 
leadership,  the  gift  of  organizing  ability.  It 
did  not  matter  to  this  superintendent  whether 
the  assistant  he  sought  had  been  to  college  or 
not,  whether  he  was  rich  or  poor. 

He  cared  no  more  about  that  than  he  cared 
9  121 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

whether  the  man  for  whom  this  place  was 
seeking  was  a  blond  or  a  brunette.  The  only 
question  that  he  was  asking  was,  "  Where  is 
the  man  who  is  equal  to  the  job? " 

And  that,  my  young  friend,  is  the  question 
which  all  industry  is  asking  in  every  field  of 
human  effort;  that  is  the  question  your  Fate 
is  putting  to  you  who  are  anxious  to  do  big 
work,  "  Ai'e  you  equal  to  the  job?  "  If  you  are 
not,  then  be  honest  enough  to  step  out  of  the 
contest.  Be  honest  enough  not  to  envy  the 
other  young  men  who  are  equal  to  the  job. 

Yes,  be  honest  enough  to  applaud  the  man 
who  is  equal  to  the  job  and  who  goes  bravely 
to  his  task.  Don't  find  fault  with  him.  Don't 
swear  that  "  There  is  no  chance  for  a  young 
man  any  more."  That's  not  true,  you  know. 
And  remember  always  that  if  you  do  all  you 
are  fitted  for,  you  do  as  well  as  your  abler 
brother,  and  better  than  he  if  you  do  your 
best  and  he  does  not. 

A  young  man  whom  fortune  had  kept 
from  college,  but  who  is  too  stout-hearted  to 
let  that  discourage  him,  said  to  me  the  other 
day:  "  I  don't  think  that  a  college  education 
confers,  or  the  absence  of  it  prevents,  success. 
But  I  do  think  that  where  there  are  two  men 
of  equal  health,  ability,  and  character,  that  one 

122 


THE    COLLEGE? 

will  be  chosen  who  has  been  to  college,  and 
to  this  extent  the  college  man  has  a  better 
chance."  This  is  true  for  the  ordinary  man — 
the  man  who  is  willing  to  put  forth  no  more 
than  the  ordinary  effort. 

But  you  who  read — you  are  willing  to  put 
forth  extraordinary  effort,  are  you  not?  You 
are  willing  to  show  these  favored  sons  of  cap 
and  gown  that  you  will  run  as  fast  and  as  far 
as  they,  with  all  their  training,  will  you  not? 
You  are  willing — yes,  and  determined,  to  use 
every  extra  hour  which  your  college  brother, 
tliinlxing  he  has  the  advantage  of  you,  will 
probably  waste. 

Very  well.  If  you  do,  biography  (that  most 
inspiring  of  all  literature)  demonstrates  that 
your  reward  will  be  as  rich  as  the  college  man's 
reward.  Yes,  richer,  for  the  gold  which  your 
refinery  purges  from  the  dross  of  your  disad- 
vantages will  be  doubly  refined  by  the  fires 
of  your  intenser  effort. 

In  1847  two  men  were  born  who  have  blessed 
mankind  with  productive  work  which,  rich  as 
are  now  its  benefits  to  the  race,  will  create  a 
new  wealth  of  human  helpfulness  with  each 
succeeding  jeax  as  long  as  time  endures.  Both 
these  men  have  lived,  almost  to  a  day,  the  same 
number  of  years;  both  of  them  are  still  alive; 

123 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND   THE    WORLD 

both  of  them  have  labored  in  neighboring  sec- 
tions of  the  same  field.  They  are  alike,  too,  in 
character,  almost  duplicates  in  ability.  Here, 
then,  is  material  for  a  perfect  comparison. 

Mark,  now,  the  parallel.  One  of  them  was 
a  college  man,  the  son  of  a  noted  educator 
and  himself  a  professor  in  the  University  of 
Boston.  He  used  the  gifts  which  God  gave 
him  for  that  purpose,  and  as  long  as  the  trans- 
mission of  human  speech  continues  among 
men,  the  name  of  Alexander  Graham  Bell 
will  be  rightly  honored  by  all  the  world. 

The  other  of  these  men  could  no  more  have 
gone  to  college  than  he  could  have  crossed  the 
Atlantic  on  a  sheet  of  paper.  You  who  read 
this  never  had  to  work  half  so  hard  as  this  man 
worked  when  he  was  a  boy.  Your  patience  will 
never  be  so  taxed  and  tested  as  his  patience 
was  and  is.  But  who  can  say  that  your  efforts 
and  your  persistence  will  not  be  as  richly  re- 
warded according  to  your  ability  as  his  cease- 
lessness  has  been  repaid,  if  you  will  try  as  hard 
as  he  has  tried,  and  use  every  ounce  of  your- 
self as  effectively  as  he  has  used  himself? 

At  twelve  years  of  age  he  was  a  newsboy  on 
the  Grand  Trunk  Railway.  That  didn't  sat- 
isfy him.  The  mystery  of  the  telegraph  (and 
what  is  more  mysterious?)   constantly  called 

124 


THE    COLLEGE? 

him.  The  cHck  of  the  instrument  was  a  voice 
from  an  unknown  world  speaking  to  him  words 
far  different  from  those  recorded  in  the  mes- 
sages that  instrument  was  transmitting. 

And  so  Thomas  A.  Edison,  without  a  dollar 
or  a  friend,  set  himself  to  work  to  master  the 
telegraph  and  to  explore  the  mysteries  behind 
it.  Result:  the  duplex  telegraph  and  the  de- 
velopments from  that ;  the  phonograph,  the  in- 
candescent electric  light,  and  those  numerous 
inventions  which,  one  after  another,  have  con- 
founded the  bigotry  and  ignorance  of  the 
world. 

Edison  and  Bell,  Bell  and  Edison,  one  a 
college  man  and  the  other  a  laborer  without 
the  gates,  unlike  in  preparation  but  similar  in 
character,  devotion,  and  ability,  and  equal  win- 
ners of  honor  and  reward  at  the  hands  of  a 
just  if  doubting  world. 

Of  course  I  might  go  on  all  day  with  illus- 
trations like  this.  History  is  brilliant  with  the 
names  of  those  who  have  wrought  gloriously 
without  a  college  training.  These  men,  too, 
have  succeeded  in  every  possible  line  of  work. 
They  are  among  the  living,  too,  as  well  as 
among  those  whose  earthly  careers  have  ended. 

The  men  who  never  went  to  college  have  not 
only  built  great  railroads,  but  also  have  written 

125 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

immortal  words ;  not  only  have  they  been  great 
editors,  but  also  they  have  created  vast  indus- 
tries, and  piled  mountain  high  their  golden  for- 
tunes; not  only  have  they  made  epoch-making 
discoveries  in  science,  but  they  have  set  down 
in  words  of  music  a  poetry  whose  truth  and 
sweetness  makes  nobler  human  character  and 
finer  the  life's  work  of  all  who  read  those  sen- 
tences of  light. 

Among  the  fathers  who  established  this  Gov- 
ernment, the  greatest  never  went  to  college. 
Hamilton  was  not  a  college  man.  Washing- 
ton, to  this  day  the  first  of  Americans,  never 
even  attended  school  after  he  was  sixteen  years 
old.  Of  the  great  founders  of  modern  jour- 
nalism— the  four  extraordinary  men  whom 
their  profession  to  this  day  refers  to  as  the 
great  journalists — only  one  was  a  college  grad- 
uate— Raymond,,  who  established  the  New 
York  Times.  Charles  A.  Dana,  who  made 
the  New  York  Su7i  the  most  quoted  newspaper 
of  his  generation,  was  not  a  college  graduate. 
William  Cullen  Bryant,  who  gave  to  the  New 
York  Evening  Post  a  peculiar  distinction  and 
preeminence,  went  to  college  only  one  year. 

Samuel  Bowles,  who  founded  the  Spring- 
field Republican  and  made  its  influence  felt 
for  righteousness  throughout  the  Nation,  at- 

126 


THE    COLLEGE? 

tended  a  private  institution  for  a  while.  James 
Gordon  Bennett,  the  editor  whose  resourceful 
mind  sent  Stanley  to  the  heart  of  African  jun- 
gles to  find  Livingstone,  was  never  a  college 
student. 

Horace  Greeley,  that  amazing  mind  and 
character,  who  created  the  New  York  Tribune, 
and  who,  through  it,  for  many  years  exercised 
more  power  over  public  opinion  than  any  other 
single  influence  in  the  Republic,  never  went  to 
college;  and  Greeley's  famous  saying,  "  Of  all 
horned  cattle,  deliver  me  from  the  college 
graduate,"  remained  for  a  quarter  of  a  century 
a  standing  maxim  in  the  editorial  rooms  of  all 
the  big  newspapers  of  the  country. 

Stevenson,  who  invented  the  steam-engine, 
was  not  a  college  man.  He  was  the  son  of  a 
fireman  in  one  of  the  English  collieries.  As 
a  boy,  he  was  himself  a  laborer  in  the  mines. 
Undoubtedly  the  greatest  engineer  America 
has  yet  produced  was  Captain  Eades,  whose 
fame  was  world  wide;  yet  this  Indiana  boy, 
who  constructed  the  jetties  of  the  Mississippi, 
built  the  ship  railroad  across  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama  and  other  like  wonders,  never  had  a 
day's  instruction  in  anj^"  higher  institution  of 
learning  than  the  common  schools  of  Dearborn 
Comity.    Ericsson,  who  invented  the  Monitor y 

127 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

and  whose  creative  genius  revolutionized  naval 
warfare,  was  a  Swedish  immigrant.  Robert 
Fulton,  who  invented  the  steamboat,  never 
went  to  college. 

And  take  literature:  John  Bunyan  was 
not  only  uneducated,  but  actually  ignorant. 
If  Milton  went  to  college,  I  repeat  that  Shake- 
speare had  no  other  alma  mater  than  the 
university  of  human  natirre,  and  that  Robert 
Burns  was  not  a  college  man.  Our  own  Wash- 
ington Irving  never  saw  the  inside  of  any 
higher  institution  of  learning.  I  have  already 
noted  that  the  author  of  "  Thanatopsis  "  went 
to  college  for  only  a  single  year. 

Among  the  writers,  Lew  Wallace,  soldier, 
dij)lomat,  and  author,  was  self-educated. 
John  Stuart  Mill,  who  is  distinguished  as  a 
philosopher,  is  innocent  of  a  college  training. 
James  Whitcomb  Riley,  our  American  Burns, 
is  not  a  "  college  man."  Hugh  Miller,  the 
Scotchman,  whose  fame  as  a  geologist  is 
known  to  all  the  world  of  science,  did  not  go 
to  college. 

Take  statesmanship.  Henry  Clay  wrested 
his  education  from  books,  experience,  and 
downright  hard  thinking;  and  we  Americans 
still  like  to  tell  of  the  immortal  Lincoln  poring 
over  the  pages  of  his  few  and  hard-won  vol- 

128 


THE    COLLEGE? 

umes  before  the  glare  of  the  wood-fire  on  the 
hearth,  or  the  uncertain  Hght  of  the  tallow  dip. 
Benjamin  Franklin  got  his  education  in  a 
print-shop. 

In  American  productive  industry,  the  most 
conspicuous  name,  undoubtedly,  is  that  of 
Andrew  Carnegie;  yet  this  great  ironmaster, 
and  master  of  gold  as  well,  who  has  written  as 
vigorously  as  he  has  wrought,  was  a  Scotch  im- 
migrant. George  P.eabody,  the  philanthropist, 
never  was  inside  a  (%nege  as  a  student.  He 
was  a  clerk  when  he  ^s  eleven  years  old. 

At  least  three  of  the  most  astonishing  though 
legitimfyte  business  successes  which  have  been 
made  in  the  last  (bcade  in  New  York  were 
made  by  men  not  yik  forty-five  years  old,  none 
of  whom  had  any  other  education  than  our 
common  schools.  I  am  not  sure,  but  I  will 
hazard  the  guess  that  a  majority  of  the  great 
business  men  of  Chicago  never  saw  a  college. 

These  illustrations  occur  to  the  mind  as  I 
write,  and  without  special  selection.  Doubt- 
less, the  entire  space  of  this  paper  might  be 
occupied  by  nothing  more  than  the  names  of 
men  who  have  blessed  the  race  and  become  his- 
toric successes  in  every  possible  department  of 
human  industry,  none  of  whom  ever  saw  the 
inside  of  either  college  or  university. 

129 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

But  all  of  these  do  not  prove  that  you  ought 
not  to  go  to  college  if  j^ou  can.  Certainly  you 
ought  to  go  to  college  if  it  is  possible.  But 
the  lives  of  these  men  do  prove  that  no  matter 
how  hard  the  conditions  that  you  think  sur- 
round you,  success  is  yours  in  spite  of  them, 
if  you  are  willing  to  pay  tJie  price  of  success — 
if  you  are  willing  to  work  and  wait ;  if  you  are 
willing  to  be  patient,  to  keep  sweet,  to  main- 
tain fresh  and  strong  your  faith  in  God,  your 
fellow  men,  and  in  yourself. 

The  life  of  any  one  of  the  men  whom  I  have 
mentioned  is  not  only  an  inspiration  but  an  in- 
struction to  you  who,  like  these  men,  cannot 
go  to  college.  Consider,  for  example,  how 
Samuel  B.  Raymond  established  the  New 
York  Times.  He  wrote  his  own  editorials ;  he 
did  his  own  reporting ;  he  set  his  own  type ;  he 
distributed  his  own  papers.  That  was  the  be- 
ginning. 

One  of  the  most  successful  merchants  that 
I  know  opened  a  little  store  in  the  midst  of 
large  and  pretentious  mercantile  establish- 
ments. He  bought  his  own  goods;  he  was 
his  own  clerk;  he  swept  and  dusted  his  own 
storeroom,  and  polished  his  own  show-cases. 
He  was  up  at  five  in  the  morning,  and  he 
worked  to  twelve  and  one  at  night,  and  then 

130 


THE    COLLEGE? 

slept  on  the  counter.  That  was  less  than  thirty- 
years  ago.  To-day  he  is  at  the  head  of  the 
largest  dej)artment  store  in  one  of  the  consid- 
erable cities  of  this  country,  and  he  owns  his 
store. 

This  is  an  illustration  so  common  that  every 
country  town,  as  well  as  London,  Paris,  and 
New  York,  can  show  examples  like  it.  And, 
mark  you,  most  of  these  men  were  weighted 
down  with  responsibilities  as  great  as  yours 
can  possibly  be,  and  hindered  by  obstacles  as 
numerous  and  difficult  as  those  which  you  have 
confronting  you. 

Yet  they  succeeded  brilliantly.  The  world 
rewarded  them  as  richly  as  any  graduate  of 
any  university  who  went  to  his  life's  work  from 
the  very  head  of  his  class.  For  you  know  this, 
don't  you,  that  the  world  hands  down  success 
to  any  man  who  pays  the  price.  Very  well, 
the  price  is  not  a  college  education.  The  price 
is  effectiveness,  and  the  college  is  valuable  only 
as  it  helps  you  to  be  effective. 

Here  is  a  true  picture  of  our  earthly  work 
and  its  rewards:  Behind  a  counter  stands  the 
salesman.  Fortune,  with  just  but  merciless 
scales.  On  the  shelves  this  Merchant  of  Des- 
tiny has  both  failure  and  success,  in  measure 
large  and  small.     Every  man  steps  up  to  this 

131 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND   THE    WORLD 

counter  and  purchases  what  he  receives  and 
receives  what  he  purchases.  And  when  he 
buys  success  he  pays  for  it  in  the  crimson  coin 
of  his  hfe's  blood. 

This  is  a  sinister  illustration,  I  know,  but  it 
is  the  tiTith,  and  the  truth  is  what  you  are  after, 
is  it  not?  You  can  do  about  what  you  will 
within  the  compass  of  your  abilities;  but  you 
accomplish  all  your  achievings  with  heart-beats. 
This  is  a  rule  which  has  no  exceptions,  and  ap- 
plies with  equal  force  to  the  man  who  goes  to 
college  and  to  him  who  cannot  go.  What  is 
that  that  some  poet  says  about  the  successful 

man: 

" .     .     .    Who  while  others  slept 

Was  climbing  upward  through  the  night." 

So  do  not  let  the  fact  that  you  cannot  go 
to  college  excuse  yourself  to  yourself  for  being 
a  failure.  Do  not  say,  "  I  have  no  chance  be- 
cause I  am  not  a  college  man,"  and  blame  the 
world  for  its  injustice.  What  Cassius  ex- 
claimed to  Brutus  is  exactly  applicable  to  you: 

"  The  fault,  dear  Bi'utus,  is  not  in  our  stars. 
But  in  ourselves,  that  we  are  underlings." 

So  do  not  whine  as  to  your  hard  fate;  do 
not  go  to  pitying  yourself.  No  whimper 
should  come  from  a  masculine  throat. 

132 


THE    COLLEGE? 

A  man  who  does  either  of  these  things  there- 
by proves  that  he  ought  not  to  succeed — and 
he  will  not  succeed.  Indeed,  how  do  you  know 
that  these  fii'es  of  misfortune  through  which 
you  are  passing  are  not  heat  designed  by  Fate 
to  temper  the  steel  of  your  real  character. 
Certainly  that  ought  to  be  true  if  you  have  the 
stuff  in  you.  And  if  you  have  not  the  stuif 
in  you,  Yale,  Harvard,  Princeton,  Cambridge, 
Oxford,  and  all  the  universities  of  Germany 
cannot  lift  you  an  inch  above  your  normal 
level.  "  You  cannot  make  a  silk  purse  out  of 
a  sow's  ear  "  is  our  pithy  and  brutally  truth- 
ful folk-saying. 

"  What  do  you  raise  on  these  shaly  hills? " 
I  asked  one  time  of  that  ideal  American  states- 
man, Senator  Orville  H.  Piatt,  of  Connecti- 
cut. "  Manhood,"  answered  this  great  New 
Englander,  and  then  he  went  on  to  point  out 
the  seemingly  contradictory  facts  that  a  poor 
soil  universally  produces  stern  and  upright 
character,  solid  and  productive  ability,  and 
dauntless  courage. 

The  very  effort  required  to  live  in  these 
ungenerous  surroimdings,  the  absolute  neces- 
sity to  make  every  blow  tell,  to  preserve  every 
fragment  of  value;  the  perpetual  exercise  of 
the  inventive  faculty,  thus  making  the  intellect 

133 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

more  productive  by  the  continuous  and  crea- 
tive use  of  it — all  these  develop  those  powers 
of  mind  and  heart  which  through  all  history 
have  distinguished  the  inhabitants  of  such 
countries  as  Switzerland  and  New  England. 
"  And  so,"  said  Connecticut's  great  senator, 
"  these  rocky  hills  produce  manliood." 

Apply  this  to  your  own  circumstance,  you 
who  cannot  go  to  college  because  you  must 
"  support  the  family,"  or  have  inherited  a  debt 
which  your  honor  compels  you  to  pay,  or  any 
one  of  those  unhappy  conditions  which  fortune 
has  laid  on  your  young  shoulders. 

Most  men  with  wealth,  friends,  and  influ- 
ence accept  them  as  a  matter  of  course.  Not 
many  young  men  who  are  happily  situated  at 
the  beginning,  employ  the  opportunities  which 
are  at  their  hand.  They  don't  understand 
their  value.  Having  "  influence "  to  help 
them,  they  usually  rely  on  this  artificial  aid — 
seldom  upon  themselves.  Having  friends, 
they  depend  upon  these  allies  rather  than  upon 
the  ordered,  drilled,  disciplined  troops  of  their 
own  powers  and  capabilities.  Having  money, 
they  do  not  see  as  vividly  the  necessity  of  toil- 
ing to  make  more. 

"  What's  the  use  of  my  working;  father  did 
enough  of  that  for  our  family,"  wittily  said 

134 


THE    COLLEGE? 

one  of  these  j^oung  men.  Having  the  train- 
ing of  the  best  universities  very  much  as  they 
have  their  food  and  clothing,  these  men  are  too 
apt  to  be  bhnd  to  the  greater  skill  this  equip- 
ment gives  them,  and  thus  to  neglect  the  using 
of  it. 

And  so,  young  man — you  who  cannot  go 
to  college,  you  who  are  without  friends  and 
"  influence  " — your  brother  born  with  a  silver 
spoon  in  his  mouth,  and  trained  by  tutors,  fin- 
ished by  professors,  and  clothed  with  all  the 
"  advantages,"  has  not  such  a  great  start  of 
you  after  all.  For  you  are  without  friends  to 
begin  with.  You  have  not  inherited  comrades 
and  kindred  hearts.  You  have  inlierited  alone- 
ness  and  solitude. 

Very  well,  you  must  depend  on  yourself, 
then.  If  you  have  the  right  kind  of  stuff  in 
you,  you  will  make  every  ohm  of  your  force  do 
something  for  you.  You  will  see  to  it  that 
there  is  no  wasted  energy.  You  will  economize 
every  instant  of  your  time,  for  you  will  under- 
stand, in  the  wise  language  of  the  common  peo- 
ple, that  "  time  is  money  " ;  and  that  is  some- 
thing, mind  you,  which  the  heir  of  wealth 
with  whom  you  are  competing  does  not  under- 
stand at  all.  You  know  what  an  advantage 
your  competitor,  who  is  a  college  man,  has  of 

135 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

you;  and  this  knowledge  of  yours,  coupled 
with  your  college  competitor's  possible  lack  of 
it,  turns  his  advantage  over  you  into  your 
advantage  over  him. 

It  is  like  a  man  who  has  a  dozen  shots  for 
his  rifle  against  another  who  has  a  hundred. 
The  first  will  make  every  shot  bring  down  his 
game,  because  he  knows  he  must  make  every 
shot  tell;  he  cannot  waste  a  cartridge.  But  he 
of  abundant  ammunition  fires  without  certain 
aim,  and  so  wastes  his  treasure  of  shells  until 
for  the  actual  purposes  of  fruitful  marksman- 
ship he  has  not  as  many  cartridges  left  as  the 
man  who  started  with  fewer.  Also  his  aim  is 
not  so  accurate. 

Or  use  an  illustration  taken  from  the  earth. 
I  well  remember  when  a  boy  upon  the  fat  allu- 
vium of  the  Illinois  prairie,  how  recklessly  the 
farmers  then  exhausted  the  resources  of  their 
fields.  So  opulent  was  the  black  soil  that  little 
care  was  taken  save  to  sow  the  seed  and  crudely 
cultivate  it;  and  the  simple  prudences,  such  as 
rotation  of  crops,  differential  fertilizing,  and 
the  like,  would  have  been  laughed  at  by  the 
farmer,  heedless  in  the  richness  of  his  acres. 

But  the  German  farmer  on  his  sandy  soil 
could  take  no  such  risks.  Every  vestige  of 
fertility  that  skill,  science,  and  economy  could 

136 


THE    COLLEGE? 

win  from  the  reluctant  German  field  was  se- 
cured. The  German  farmer  had  to  woo  his 
land  like  a  lover.  And  so  the  unyielding 
fields  of  Germany  returned  richer  harvests 
thirty  years  ago  than  a  like  area  of  the  prodi- 
gally vital  silt  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

So  what  you  have  got  to  do,  young  man 
who  cannot  go  to  college,  is  to  develop  your- 
self with  the  most  vigorous  care.  Take  your 
reading,  for  example.  Choose  your  books  with 
an  eye  single  to  their  helpfulness.  Let  all 
your  reading  be  for  the  strengthening  of  your 
understanding,  the  increase  of  your  knowl- 
edge. 

Your  more  fortunate  competitor  who  has 
gone  to  college  will,  perhaps,  not  be  doing 
this.  He  will  probably  be  "  resting  his  mind  " 
with  an  ephemeral  novel  or  the  discursive  hop- 
skip -and- jump  reading  of  current  periodicals. 
Thus  he  will  day  by  day  be  weakening  his 
strength,  diminishing  his  resources.  At  the 
very  same  time  you,  by  the  other  method,  will 
hourly  be  adding  to  your  powers,  daily  accu- 
mulating useful  material. 

And  when  you  read,  make  what  you  read 
yours.  Think  about  it.  Absorb  it.  Make  it 
a  part  of  your  mental  being.  Far  more  im- 
portant than  this,  make  every  thought  you 
10  137 


THE    YOUNG   MAX   AXD    THE    WORLD 

read  in  books,  every  fact  which  the  author  fur- 
nishes you,  the  seed  for  new  thoughts  of  j^our 
own.  Remember  that  no  fact  in  the  universe 
stands  by  itself,  but  that  every  fact  is  related 
to  every  other  fact.  Trace  out  the  connection 
of  truth  with  truth,  and  you  will  soon  confront 
that  most  amazing  and  important  of  all  truths, 
the  correlation  of  all  force,  all  thought,  all 
matter. 

And  thus,  too  will  your  mind  acquire  a 
trained  and  systematic  strength  which  is  the 
chief  purpose  of  all  the  training  which  college 
and  university  give.  For,  mind  you,  the  prin- 
cipal purpose  of  going  to  college  is  not  to 
acquire  knowledge.  That  is  only  secondary. 
The  chief  reason  for  a  college  education  is  the 
making  of  a  trained  mind  and  the  building  of 
a  sound  character. 

These  suggestions  as  to  reading  apply  to 
ever}i:hing  else :  to  men,  business,  society,  life. 
Because  you  must  compete  with  the  college 
men,  you  cannot  be  careless  with  books — in 
the  selection  of  books,  or  in  the  use  of  them. 
For  the  same  reason,  you  cannot  be  indiffer- 
ent with  men  and  your  relationship  with  them. 
If  other  men  are  loose  and  inaccurate  in  read- 
ing the  character  of  their  fellows,  most  cer- 
tainly you  cannot  be. 

138 


THE    COLLEGE? 

If  the  men  who  have  battahons  of  friends 
to  start  with  become  neghgent  of  their  asso- 
ciations, welcoming  all  fish  that  come  to  their 
net,  and  frogs,  too,  you  dare  not  take  the  risk 
of  a  dissolute  companionship,  or  any  other 
companionship  that  will  weaken  the  daily  dis- 
cipline of  yourself,  or  lower  you  in  the  esteem 
of  the  people. 

Thus  you  become  a  careful  student  of  hu- 
man nature.  And  never  forget  that  he  who 
has  mastered  this,  the  most  abstruse  of  sci- 
ences, has  a  better  equipment  for  practical 
success  than  all  the  abstract  learning  from  the 
days  of  Socrates  till  now  could  give  him. 

Conscious  from  day  to  day  of  your  limited 
resources,  and  understanding  by  the  severe 
tuition  of  your  daily  life  that  the  world  now 
demands  effectiveness,  you  will  nurture  your 
physical  and  nervous  powers  where  the  rich 
young  man  with  a  college  training  is  apt  to 
waste  his.  He  may  smoke,  but  you  dare  not. 
You  cannot  afford  it,  for  one  thing. 

For  another  thing,  it  is  a  long  race  that 
you  are  running  before  you  reach  the  point 
from  which  your  fellow  runner  starts;  so  you 
have  got  to  save  your  wind.  You  need  all 
your  nerve.  You  have  got  to  keep  "  clean  to 
the  bone,"  as  Jack  London  expresses  it. 

139 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

You  have  got  to  take  thought  of  the  mor- 
row. You  have  got  to  do  all  those  things 
which  your  employer,  and  all  observers  of  you, 
will,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  approve; 
and  refrain  from  doing  anything  that  your 
employer,  or  his  wife,  or  the  world,  or  any- 
body who  is  watching  you,  will  disapprove  of, 
even  subconsciously. 

Thus  your  profound  understanding  that 
effectiveness  is  what  counts  will  cut  out  every 
questionable  habit,  every  association  of  idle- 
ness and  sloth.  No  social  club  for  you;  that 
institution  is  for  the  man  of  dollars  and  of 
Greek.  No  evenings  with  gay  parties  for  you ; 
you  must  use  those  precious  hours  for  reading, 
planning,  sleep. 

You  cannot  dally  with  brilliant  indirect- 
ness; you  must  make  every  man  and  woman 
understand  that  you  are  goldenly  sincere, 
forcefully  earnest,  earnestly  honest,  high  of 
intention,  sound  of  purpose,  direct  of  method. 
Out  of  all  these  you  wall  finally  wring  every- 
thing which  the  college  is  designed  to  giA^e: 
skilled  intellect,  mind  equipped  with  sys- 
tematized knowledge,  simple,  earnest,  upright 
character. 

And  to  crown  it  all,  you  will  discover  in  this 
hard  discipline  of  your  faculties  and  of  your 

140 


THE    COLLEGE? 

soul  a  happiness  whose  steady  felicity  is  un- 
known to  the  lounger  of  the  club  or  the  fre- 
quenter of  the  ballroom.  For  remember  this — 
you  who  in  your  heart  cherish  a  secret  envy 
of  those  other  young  men  whom  j^ou  believe, 
hy  reason  of  family,  wealth,  or  anj^  favorable 
circumstance,  are  getting  more  of  the  joy  of 
living  than  you  get — remember  this,  that  this 
world  knows  only  one  higher  degree  of  happi- 
ness than  that  which  comes  from  discipline, 
only  one  pleasure  nobler  than  the  pleasure  of 
achieving. 

Let  me  close  with  two  illustrations  within 
my  own  personal  observation.  In  one  of  the 
most  charming  inland  cities  of  the  United 
States,  or  of  the  world,  for  that  matter,  I  met 
some  fifteen  years  ago  a  young  man  of  Ger- 
man parentage.  His  father  was  poor.  The 
son  simply  had  to  help  support  the  family  by 
his  daily  work.  He  never  got  nearer  college 
than  in  his  dreams. 

He  knew  something  of  printing,  and  was 
employed  by  a  vigorous  new  house  at  an 
humble  salary.  By  processes  such  as  I  have 
analyzed  above,  he  made  himself  the  best  man 
in  technical  work  in  the  firm's  employ.  The 
next  step  was  to  demonstrate  his  ability  as  a 
manager  and  financier  as  well  as  a  skilled 

141 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

workman.  There  was  a  nut  to  crack,  was  it 
not?  But  see,  now,  how  simply  he  broke  the 
shell  of  that  problem. 

With  some  other  sound  young  men  of  like 
quality,  he  established  a  building"  and  loan  as- 
sociation, one  of  those  banks  of  the  people 
which  flourished  in  those  days.  He  had  no 
capital  behind  him.  His  acquaintance  was 
small.  Never  mind,  he  made  acquaintances 
among  people  of  his  own  class.  So  did  his 
fellow  directors.  Those  common  people  from 
which  this  young  man  sprang  furnished  from 
their  earnings  the  necessary  money. 

The  little  institution  was  conducted  with  all 
our  American  dash,  with  all  his  German  cau- 
tion. Of  course  it  prospered.  How  could  it 
help  prospering?  While  other  building  and 
loan  associations  undertook  alluring  but  haz- 
ardous experiments,  this  little  concern  rejected 
them  with  all  the  cahn  and  haughty  disfavor 
of  the  most  conservative  old  bank. 

After  a  while  people  began  to  take  notice  of 
this  small  institution.  Its  depositors  were  sat- 
isfied, its  customers  pleased.  One  day  the 
attorney  of  this  association,  also  a  young  man, 
called  his  fellow  directors  together,  and  re- 
signed, upon  the  ground  that  he  thought  the 
movement  of  gold  abroad  and  other  financial 

142 


THE    COLLEGE? 

phenomena  indicated  a  panic  within  the  next 
two  or  three  years. 

Did  this  dismay  the  young  German- Amer- 
ican? Not  much.  "  This  is  just  what  I  am 
looking  for,"  said  he.  "  I  have  been  able  to 
manage  this  institution  in  prosperous  times; 
now  if  I  can  only  have  a  chance  to  close  it  up 
so  that  no  man  loses  a  dollar,  when  big  banks 
around  me  are  falling,  I  will  accomplish  all 
I  have  started  to  accomplish." 

Sure  enough,  the  panic  of  1893  arrived,  and 
the  young  man's  opportunity  came.  Bank 
after  bank  went  down;  old  institutions  whose 
venerable  names  had  been  their  sufficient  guar- 
antee collapsed  in  a  day.  Most  building  and 
loan  associations,  taking  advantage  of  certain 
provisions  of  the  law,  and  of  their  charters, 
refused  to  pay  their  depositors  on  demand. 
The  men  and  women  who  had  put  their  money 
in  found  that  they  could  not  "  withdraw  "  for 
some  time,  and  then  only  at  a  loss. 

But  not  so  with  the  model  experiment  of  my 
young  friend,  by  which  he  proposed  to  demon- 
strate his  ability  to  organize,  manage,  and  sup- 
port a  difficult  business,  and  to  properly  handle 
complex  financial  questions.  He  closed  his 
institution  up  amid  the  appreciation  and  praise 
of  everybody  who  knew  about  it. 

143 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

In  the  mean  time  he  had  worked  a  Httle 
harder  than  ever  for  the  firm  that  employed 
him.  He  took  part  in  pohtics,  too.  His  ac- 
quaintance grew  slowly  but  steadily,  and  then 
with  ever-increasing  rapidity,  as  each  new- 
made  friend  enthusiastically  described  him  to 
others. 

It  soon  got  on  the  tongues  of  the  people 
that  even  in  his  politics  this  young  man  didn't 
drink,  smoke,  nor  swear.  More  marvelous 
than  all,  it  was  said  that  he  was  even  relig- 
ious. And  the  saying  was  true.  During  all 
these  years  when  he  had  no  time  for  anything 
else,  he  also  had  no  time  to  stay  away  from 
Sunday-school  and  church.  He  had  certain 
convictions  and  spoke  them  out. 

He  had  no  time  for  "  society  " ;  not  a  mo- 
ment for  parties;  not  an  hour  for  the  clubs. 
But  he  did  have  time  for  one  girl,  and  for  her 
he  did  not  have  time  enough.  All  this  was 
not  so  very  long  ago.  To-day  this  young  man 
is  a  member  of  the  firm  for  which  he  began 
as  a  common  workman,  and  which  has  since 
grown  to  be  one  of  the  largest  concerns  of  its 
kind  in  the  entire  coimtry.  Successful  banks 
have  made  him  a  director.  On  all  hands  his 
judgment  is  sought  and  taken  by  old  and  able 
men  in  business,  politics,  and  finance. 

144 


.  THE    COLLEGE? 

And  to  crown  all  these  achievings,  he  has 
builded  him  a  home  w^iere  all  the  righteous 
joys  abound,  and  over  which  presides  the  "  girl 
he  went  to  see  "  in  the  hard  days  of  his  begin- 
nings, when  he  had  no  time  for  "  societ}^ "  ex- 
cept that  which  he  found  in  her  presence.  As 
he  was  then,  so  he  is  now — "  clean  to  the  bone," 
strong,  upright,  faithful,  joyous  in  the  unsul- 
lied happiness  of  the  manly  living  of  a  manly 
life. 

Very  well,  I  tell  you  over  again  that  this 
man  did  not  go  to  college  because  he  could  not 
go  to  college ;  that  he  had  no  opportunities,  no 
friends,  few  acquaintances.  But  he  did  have 
right  principles,  good  health,  and  an  under- 
standing- that  every  drop  of  his  blood  must  be 
wrought  into  a  deed,  every  minute  of  his  time 
compounded  into  power.  And  this  young 
man  is  not  yet  forty  years  of  age. 

I  will  venture  to  say  that  his  example  can 
be  repeated  in  every  town  in  the  United  States, 
in  every  city  of  the  Republic.  Certainly  I  per- 
sonally know  of  a  score  of  such  successes  in 
my  own  home  city.  I  personally  know  of 
many  such  examples  in  other  States.  You  ask 
for  the  inspiration  of  example,  young  man 
who  cannot  go  to  college.  Look  around  you 
— they  are  on  every  hand. 

145 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WOULD 

Can  you  not  find  them  in  your  own  town? 
Or,  if  you  live  on  a  farm,  do  you  not  see 
them  in  your  own  county?  I  personally 
know  of  country  boys  who  started  out  as 
farm  hands  at  sixteen  dollars  per  month  and 
board,  who  to-day  own  the  farms  on  which 
they  were  employed,  and  yet  who  are  not 
now  much  past  middle  life.  They  have  done  it 
by  the  simple  rules  that  are  as  old  as  human 
industry. 

Come,  then,  don't  mope.  Sleep  eight  hours. 
Then  three  hours  for  your  meals,  and  a  chance 
for  your  stomach  to  begin  digesting  them  after 
you  have  eaten  them.  That  makes  eleven 
hours,  and  leaves  you  thirteen  houi's  remain- 
ing. Take  one  of  these  for  getting  to  and  from 
your  business.  The7i  work  the  other  twelve. 
Every  highly  successful  man  whom  I  know 
worked  even  longer  during  the  years  of  his 
beginnings. 

What,  no  recreation?  say  you.  Certainly  I 
say  recreation,  and  I  say  pleasure,  too.  But 
remember  that  you  have  got  to  overcome  the 
college  man's  advantage  over  you — and  that 
can  only  be  done  by  hard  work.  But  what  of 
that?  For  a  young  man  like  you,  full  of  that 
boundless  vigor  of  youth,  what  higher  pleasure 
can  there  be  than  the  doing  of  your  work  bet- 

146 


THE    COLLEGE? 

ter  than  anybody  else  does  the  same  kind  of 
work  ? 

And  what  finer  happiness  can  there  be  than 
the  certainty  that  such  a  hfe  as  that  will  make 
realities  of  your  dreams?  For  sure  it  is  that 
this  is  the  road  by  which  you  can  walk  to  un- 
failing success,  even  over  the  bodies  of  j^our 
rivals  who,  with  greater  "  advantages  "  than 
yours,  neglect  them  and  fall  upon  the  steep 
ascent  up  which,  with  harder  muscles,  steadier 
nerves,  and  stouter  heart,  you  climb  with  ease, 
gaining  strength  with  every  step  you  take  in- 
stead of  losing  power  as  you  advance,  as  did 
your  flabbier  fibered  competitor. 

Now  for  the  other  illustration:  Three  years 
ago  a  certain  young  man  came  to  me  from  New 
York,  the  son  of  a  friend  who  occupied  a  Gov- 
ernment position.  He  was  studying  law.  He 
was  "  quivering  "  with  ambition.  But  his 
lungs  were  getting  weak.  Would  it  be  possi- 
ble to  get  him  a  place  on  some  ranch  for  six  or 
eight  months?  Yes,  it  was  possible.  An  ac- 
quaintance was  glad  to  take  him. 

At  the  end  of  his  time  he  returned,  still 
"  quivering  "  with  ambition.  He  was  going 
to  make  a  lawyer,  that's  what  he  was  going 
to  make — the  very  best  lawyer  that  ever  mas- 
tered Blackstone.    He  already  had  a  clerkship 

147 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND   THE    WORLD 

promised  in  one  of  the  great  legal  establish- 
ments in  the  metropolis.  This  clerkship  paid 
him  enough  to  live  on,  and  gave  him  the  chance 
to  do  the  very  work  which  is  necessary  to  the 
making  of  a  lawyer. 

Splendid  thus  far.  But  observe  the  next 
step.  In  about  twelve  months  this  young  man 
came  to  me  again.  Would  I  help  to  get  a 
certain  man  who  held  a  Government  position 
paying  him  $150  a  month  promoted?  This 
last  man's  record  was  admirable;  he  deserved 
promotion  on  his  own  account.  But  why  the 
interest  of  the  would-be  law^^er,  who  was 
"  quivering  "  with  ambition? 

It  developed  that  if  the  other  fellow  was 
promoted,  this  embryo  Erskine  could,  with  the 
aid  of  influential  political  friends,  be  appointed 
in  his  place.  But  why  did  he  want  this  posi- 
tion ?  Well,  answered  the  young  man,  it  would 
enable  him  to  take  his  law  course  at  one  of  the 
law  schools  of  the  Capitol  and  get  his  degree, 
and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  Also,  it  would  en- 
able him  to  live  at  home  with  mother,  would 
it  not?  Yes,  that  was  a  consideration,  he  ad- 
mitted. 

But  did  he  think  that  that  was  as  good  a 
training  for  his  profession,  and  would  give  him 
the  chance  of  a  business  acquaintance  while  he 

148 


THE    COLLEGE? 

was  getting  that  training,  as  well  as  the  clerk- 
ship in  the  New  York  office  would?  Perhaps 
not,  but,  after  all,  he  didn't  get  very  much  sal- 
ary in  the  New  York  law  office.  Why,  how 
much  did  he  get  ?    Only  twenty  dollars  a  week. 

But  was  not  that  enough  to  live  on  at  a  mod- 
est boarding-house,  and  get  a  room  with  bed, 
table,  one  chair,  and  a  washstand,  and  buy  him 
the  necessary  clothing?  Oh,  yes!  of  course  he 
could  scratch  along  on  it,  but  it  was  hardly 
what  a  j^oung  man  of  his  standing  and  family 
ought  to  have. 

Oh!  it  didn't  enable  him  to  get  out  into 
society,  was  that  it?  Well,  yes,  he  must  admit 
there  was  something  in  that.  Washington  had 
social  advantages,  to  be  sure,  and  $150  a  month 
would  enable  him  to  have  some  of  that  life 
which  a  young  man  was  entitled  to  and  at  the 
very  same  time  be  getting  his  legal  education. 
Well!  That  young  man  did  not  get  what  he 
wanted. 

That  young  man  had  the  wrong  notion  of 
life.  Of  course,  no  man  would  do  anything 
for  him.  Until  he  changed  his  point  of  view 
utterly,  success  was  absolutely  impossible  for 
him.  What  that  young  man  needed  was  the 
experience  of  going  back  to  New  York  and 
having  to  apply  for  position  after  position 

149 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

until  his  shoe  soles  wore  out,  and  he  felt  the 
pangs  of  hunger.  He  needed  iron  in  his  blood, 
that  is  what  he  needed.  All  the  colleges  in 
the  world  would  not  enable  that  man  to  do 
anything  worth  doing  until  he  mastered  the 
sound  principles  of  living  and  of  working. 

Right  before  him  in  New  York  was  an  illus- 
tration of  this.  One  of  the  most  notable  suc- 
cesses at  the  bar  which  that  city  or  this  country 
has  witnessed  in  the  last  fifteen  years  has  been 
made  by  a  young  man  who  had  neither  college 
education,  money,  nor  friends.  He  was,  I  am 
told,  a  stenographer  in  one  of  New  York's 
great  legal  establishments.  But  that  young 
man  had  done  precisely  what  I  have  been 
pounding  at  over  and  over  again  in  this  paper. 
Very  well.  To-day  he  is  one  among  half  a 
dozen  of  the  most  notable  lawyers  in  the  great- 
est city  of  the  greatest  nation  in  the  world. 

It  is  all  in  the  using  of  what  you  have.  Let 
me  repeat  again  what  I  have  said  in  a  previous 
paper — the  inscription  which  Doc  Peets  in- 
scribed on  the  headboard  of  Jack  King,  whose 
previousness  furnished  "  Wolfville  "  with  its 
first  funeral: 

"Jack  King,  deceased. 
Life  ain''t  the  holding  of  a  good  hand, 

But 
The  playing  of  a  poor  hand  well." 
150 


THE    COLLEGE? 

And  this  is  nothing  more  than  our  frontier 
statement  of  the  parable  of  the  talents.  After 
all,  it  is  not  what  we  have,  but  what  we  make 
out  of  what  we  have  that  counts  in  this  world 
of  work.  And,  what's  more,  that  is  the  only 
thing  that  ought  to  count. 


151 


IV 

THE   NEA^    HOME 

Your  father  made  the  old  home.  Prove 
yourself  worthy  of  him  by  making  the  new 
home.  He  built  the  roof -tree  which  shel- 
tered you.  Build  you  a  roof-tree  that  may  in 
its  turn  shelter  others.  What  abnormal  ego- 
tism the  attitude  of  him  who  says,  "  This 
planet,  and  all  the  uncounted  centuries  of 
the  past,  were  made  for  7ne  and  nobody  else, 
and  I  will  live  accordingly.  I  will  go  it 
alone." 

"  I  wish  John  had  not  married  so  young," 
said  a  woman  of  wealth,  fashion,  and  brilliant 
talents  in  speaking  of  her  son.  "  Why,  how 
old  was  he?  "  asked  her  friend.  "  Twenty- 
five,"  said  she;  "  he  ought  to  have  waited  ten 
years  longer."  "  I  think  not,"  was  the  re- 
sponse of  the  world-wise  man  with  whom  she 
was  conversing.  "If  he  got  a  good  wife  he 
was  in  great  luck  that  he  did  not  wait  longer." 
"  No,"  persisted  the  mother,  "  he  ought  to 
have  taken  more  time  '  to  look  around.'    These 

152 


THE   NEW  HOME 

early  marriages  interfere  with  a  young  man's 
career." 

This  fragment  of  a  real  conversation,  which 
is  typical  of  numberless  others  like  it,  reveals 
the  false  and  shallow  philosophy  which,  if  it 
becomes  our  code  of  national  living,  will  make 
the  lives  of  our  young  people  abnormal  and 
oiir  twentieth  century  civilization  artificial  and 
neurotic.  Even  now  too  many  people  are 
thinking  about  a  "  career."  Mothers  are  talk- 
ing about  "  careers  "  for  their  sons.  Young 
men  are  dreaming  of  their  "  careers." 

It  is  assumed  that  a  young  man  can  "  carve 
out  his  career  "  if  his  attention  is  not  distracted 
and  his  powers  are  not  diminished  by  a  wife 
and  children  whom  he  must  feed,  clothe,  and 
consider.  The  icy  selfishness  of  this  hypothe- 
sis of  life  ought  to  be  enough  to  reject  it  with- 
out argument.  Who  is  any  man,  that  he 
should  have  a  "career"?  and  what  does  a 
"  career  "  amount  to,  anyway?  What  is  it  for? 
Fame?     Surely  not,  because 

"Imperious  Caesar  dead  and  turned  to  clay, 
Might  stop  a  hole  to  keep  the  wind  away," 

says   Shakespeare.     And   Shakespeare  ought 
to  know;  he  is  not  quite  three  centuries  dead, 
and  even  now  the  world  is  sadly  confused  as 
11  153 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

to  whether  he  wrote  Shakespeare.  "  Career!  " 
Let  your  "  career  "  grow  out  of  the  right  hv- 
ing  of  your  hfe — not  the  Hving  of  your  hfe 
grow  out  of  your  "  career."  "  Don't  get  the 
cart  before  the  horse." 

Is  it  to  accompHsh  some  good  thing  for  hu- 
manity that  you  want  this  "  career,"  which  is 
to  keep  you  single  until  you  are  too  old  to  be 
interesting?  Very  well.  Just  what  is  it  that 
you  expect  to  do  with  these  self-centered  and 
single  years  during  which  you  intend  so  to 
help  the  race?  If  you  cannot  tell,  you  are 
"  down  and  out  "  on  that  score. 

And,  besides,  you  will  find  that  the  enor- 
mous majority  of  men  who  by  their  service 
have  uplifted  or  enriched  humanity  have  been 
men  enough  to  lead  the  natural  life.  They 
have  been  men  who  have  founded  homes.  And 
how  can  you  better  benefit  mankind  than  by 
founding  a  home  among  your  fellow  men,  a 
pure,  normal,  sweet,  and  beautiful  home? 

That  would  be  getting  down  to  business. 
That  would  be  doing  something  definite,  some- 
thing "  you  can  put  your  finger  on."  It  would 
be  "  getting  down  to  earth,"  as  the  saying  is. 
You  would  be  "  benefiting  humanity "  sure 
enough  and  in  real  earnest  by  taking  care  of 
some  actual  human  being  among  this  great  in- 

154 


THE  NEW  HOME 

definite  mass  called  mankind.  The  making  of 
a  home  is  the  beginning  of  human  usefulness. 

The  Boers  were  a  splendid  type  of  the  hu- 
man animal.  It  took  all  the  power  of  the 
greatest  empire  on  earth  to  crush  a  handful  of 
them;  and  even  then  Great  Britain  was  able 
to  subdue  them  only  at  astonishing  loss  of  men 
and  money,  and  irreparable  impairment  of 
j3restige.  They  were  glorious  fighting  men, 
these  Boers.  The  blood  that  flowed  in  their 
veins  was  unadulterated  Dutch — the  only  un- 
conquered  blood  in  history;  for  you  will  re- 
member that  even  Caesar  could  not  overcome 
them,  and,  with  the  genius  of  the  statesman- 
soldier  that  he  was,  he  made  terms  with  them. 

But  these  Boers  were  a  good  deal  more  than 
mere  fighting  animals;  they  were  perhaps  the 
most  religious  people  on  earth.  If  they  were 
mighty  creatures  physically,  they  were  also 
exalted  beings  spiritually.  They  knew  how 
to  pray  as  well  as  to  fight.  They  made  their 
living,  too,  and  asked  no  favors.  Also  they 
builded  them  a  state.  It  was  a  fine  thing  in 
the  English  to  acloiowledge  the  high  qualities 
of  these  African  Dutchmen,  after  the  war 
with  them  was  over. 

It  is  said  that  there  was  not  an  unmarried 
man  above  twenty-one  years  of  age  among 

155 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

them.  Very  generally  the  same  thing  was  true 
of  "  The  Fathers  "  who  founded  this  republic. 
Indeed,  all  great  constructive  periods  and  peo- 
ples have  lived  in  harmony  with  the  laws  of 
Nature.  It  has  been  the  races  of  marrying 
men  that  have  made  the  heroic  epochs  in  hu- 
man history.  The  point  is  that  the  man  who 
is  not  enough  of  a  man  to  make  a  home,  need 
not  be  counted.  He  is  a  "  negligible  quan- 
tity," as  the  scientists  put  it. 

So  if  your  arm  is  not  strong  enough  to  pro- 
tect a  wife,  and  your  shoulders  are  not  broad 
enough  to  carry  aloft  your  children  in  a  sort 
of  grand  gladness,  you  are  really  not  worth 
while.  For  it  will  take  a  man  with  veins  and 
arteries  swollen  with  masculine  blood  pumped 
by  a  great,  big,  strong  heart,  working  as  easily 
and  joyfully  as  a  Corliss  engine;  with  thews  of 
steel  wire  and  step  as  light  as  a  tiger's  and 
masterful  as  an  old-time  warrior's;  with  brain 
so  fertile  and  vision  so  clear  that  he  fears  not 
the  future,  and  knows  that  what  to  weaker 
ones  seem  dangers  are  in  reality  nothing  but 
shadows — it  will  take  this  kind  of  a  man  to 
make  any  "  career  "  that  is  going  to  be  made. 

Very  well.  Such,  a  man  will  be  searching 
for  his  mate  and  finding  her,  planning  a  home 
and  building  it  before  he  is  twenty-five;  and 

156 


THE   NEW  HOME 

the  man  who  does  not,  is  either  too  weak  or 
too  selfish  to  do  it.  In  either  case  you  need 
not  fear  him.  "  He  will  never  set  the  world 
afire." 

I  am  assuming  that  you  are  man  enough 
to  be  a  man — not  a  mere  machine  of  selfish- 
ness on  the  one  hand,  or  an  anemic  imitation 
of  masculinity  on  the  other  hand.  I  am  as- 
suming that  you  think — and,  what  is  more  im- 
portant, feel — that  Nature  knows  what  she 
is  about;  that  "  God  is  not  mocked  ";  and  that 
therefore  you  propose  to  live  in  harmony  with 
universal  law. 

Therefore,  I  am  assuming  that  you  have 
established,  or  will  establish,  the  new  home 
in  place  of  the  old  home.  I  am  assuming  that 
you  will  do  this  before  there  is  a  gray  hair 
in  your  head  or  a  wrinkle  under  your  eye. 
These  new  homes  which  young  Americans  are 
building  will  be  the  sources  of  all  the  power 
and  righteousness  of  this  Republic  to-morrow, 
just  as  the  lack  of  them  will  be  the  source  of 
such  weakness  as  our  future  develops. 

Within  these  new  homes  which  young 
Americans  are  to  build,  the  altar  must  be 
raised  again  on  which  the  sacred  fire  of  Ameri- 
can ideals  must  be  kept  burning,  just  as  it 
was  kept  burning  in  the  old  homes  which  these 

157 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

young"  Americans  have  left.  And  precisely  to 
the  extent  that  these  new  homes  are  not  erected 
will  American  ideals  pale,  and  finally  perish. 

It  is  a  question,  you  see,  which  travels  quite 
to  the  horizon  of  our  vision  and  beyond  it, 
and  which  searches  the  very  heart  of  our 
national  purity  and  power.  No  wonder  that 
Bismarck  considered  the  perpetuation  of  the 
German  home,  with  its  elemental  and  joyous 
productivity,  as  the  source  of  all  imperial 
puissance  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  purpose 
and  end  of  all  statesmanship  on  the  other 
hand. 

It  would  be  far  better  for  America  if  our 
public  men  were  more  interested  in  these  sim- 
ple, vital,  elemental  matters  than  in  "  great 
problems  of  statesmanship,"  many  of  which, 
on  analysis,  are  found  to  be  imaginary  and 
supposititious.  Yes,  and  it  would  be  better 
for  the  country  if  our  literary  men  would  de- 
scribe the  healthful  life  of  the  Nation's  plain 
people,  than  tell  unsavory  stories  of  artificial 
careers  and  abnormal  affections,  and  all  that 
sort  of  thing. 

They  would  sell  more  books,  too.  I  never 
yet  heard  that  anybody  got  tired  of  "  The  Cot- 
ter's Saturday  Night."  I  think  it  quite  likely 
that  the  Book  of  Ruth  will  outlast  all  the  short 

158 


THE   NEW   HOME 

stories  that  will  be  written  during  the  present 
decade.  Yes,  decidedly,  our  public  men,  and 
our  writers,  too,  ought  to  "  get  down  to  earth." 
There  is  where  the  people  live.  The  people 
walk  upon  the  brown  soil  and  the  green  grass. 
They  dwell  beneath  the  apple-blossoms.  How 
fine  a  thing  it  is  that  our  American  President 
is  preaching  the  doctrine  of  the  American 
home  so  forcefully  that  he  impresses  the  Na- 
tion and  the  world  with  these  basic  truths  of 
living  and  of  life. 

It  is  a  good  deal  more  important  that  the 
institution  of  the  American  home  shall  not 
decay,  than  that  the  Panama  Canal  be  built 
or  our  foreign  trade  increase.  So,  in  consider- 
ing the  young  man  and  the  new  home,  we  are 
dealing  with  an  immediate  and  permanent  and 
an  absolutely  vital  question,  not  only  from 
the  view-point  of  the  young  man  himself,  but 
from  that  of  the  Nation  as  well. 

Of  course  nobody  means  that  young  men 
should  hurl  themselves  into  matrimony.  The 
fact  that  it  is  advisable  for  you  to  learn  to 
swim  does  not  mean  that  you  should  jump 
into  the  first  stream  you  come  to,  with  your 
clothes  and  shoes  on.  Undoubtedly  you  ought 
first  to  get  "settled";  that  is,  you  ought  to 
prepare  for  what  you  are  going  to  do  in  life 

159 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

and  begin  the  doing  of  it.  Don't  take  this 
step  while  you  are  in  college.  If  you  mean  to 
be  a  lawyer,  you  ought  to  get  yoiu*  legal  edu- 
cation and  open  your  office;  if  a  business  man, 
you  should  "  get  started  " ;  if  an  artizan,  you 
should  acquire  your  trade,  etc.  But  it  is  inad- 
visable to  wait  longer. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  "  build  up  a 
practise  "  in  the  profession,  or  make  a  lot  of 
money  in  business,  or  secure  unusual  wages 
as  a  skilled  laborer.  Begin  at  the  beginning, 
and  live  your  lives  together,  win  your  successes 
together,  share  your  hardships  together,  and 
let  your  fortune,  good  or  ill,  be  of  your  joint 
making.  It  will  help  you,  too,  in  a  business 
way. 

Everybody  else  is,  or  was,  situated  nearly  as 
you  are,  and  there  is  a  sort  of  fellow-feeling 
in  the  hearts  of  other  men  and  women  who 
once  had  to  "  hoe  the  same  row  "  you  are  hoe- 
ing; and  it  is  among  these  men  and  women 
you  must  win  your  success.  It  is  largely 
through  their  favor  and  confidence  that  you 
will  get  on  at  all.  If  you  are  making  a  new 
home  you  are  in  harmony  with  the  world  about 
you,  and  the  very  earth  itself  exhales  a  vital 
and  sustaining  sympathy. 

It  is  not  at  all  necessary  that  you  should 
160 


THE  NEW  HOME 

be  able  to  provide  as  good  a  house  and  the  fur- 
nishings thereof  as  that  from  which  your  wife 
comes.  Nobodj''  expects  you  to  be  as  success- 
ful in  the  very  beginning  of  your  life  as  her 
father  was  at  the  close  of  his.  Least  of  all 
does  she  herself  expect  it.  And  even  if  this 
were  possible,  it  is  not  from  such  continuous 
luxury  that  the  best  character  is  made.  The 
absolute  necessity  to  economize  compels  the 
ordinary  young  American  couple  to  learn 
the  value  of  things — the  value  of  a  dollar 
and  the  value  of  life. 

They  learn  to  "  know  how  it  comes,"  again 
to  employ  one  of  the  wise  sayings  of  the  com- 
mon people.  And  the  nmnberless  experiences 
of  their  first  few  years  of  comparative  hard- 
ship are  the  very  things  necessary  to  bring 
out  in  them  sweetness,  self-sacrifice,  and  up- 
lifting hardihood  of  character.  In  these 
sharp  experiences,  too,  there  is  greatest  hap- 
piness. How  manj^  hundreds  of  times  have 
you  heard  men  and  women  say  of  their  early 
married  years,  "  Those  were  the  happiest 
days  of  my  life." 

As  a  matter  of  good  business  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  sheer  felicity  on  the  other  hand, 
make  the  ideals  of  this  new  home  of  yours  as 
high  as  you  possibly  can.     Don't  make  them 

161 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

so  high  that  neither  you  nor  any  other  human 
being  can  hve  up  to  them,  of  course;  but  if 
you  can  put  them  a  notch  beyond  those  even 
of  the  exalted  standard  of  the  old  home,  by 
all  means  do  it.  Do  it,  that  is,  if  you  can  live 
up  to  them. 

It  is  remarkable  what  individual  power 
grows  out  of  clean  living.  It  is  profitable 
also.  The  mere  business  value  of  a  reputa- 
tion for  a  high  quality  of  home  life  will  be  one 
of  the  best  assets  that  you  can  accumulate. 
"  They  are  attending  strictly  to  business  and 
will  make  their  mark,"  said  a  wise  old  banker 
to  a  group  of  friends  in  discussing  a  fine  type 
of  young  business  man,  and  the  equally  fine 
type  of  the  young  American  woman  who  was 
his  wife. 

I  do  not  know  whether  that  young  man  was 
borrowing  money  for  his  business  from  that 
particular  bank  or  not,  but  I  do  know  that  he 
could  borrow  it  if  he  wanted  it.  And  one 
reason  why  his  credit  was  established  with  the 
money-wise  old  financier  was  the  ideal  home 
life  which  he  and  his  wife  were  leading. 

For,  mark  you,  thej^  were  not  "  living  be- 
yond their  means."  That  was  the  first  thing. 
That  is  one  of  the  best  rules  you  can  follow. 
Who  has  not  known  of  the  premature  wither- 

162 


THE   NEW  HOME 

ing  of  young  business  men  and  lawyers  (yes, 
and  sometimes  men  not  so  young,  alas!)  who 
have  suddenly  blossomed  out  with  houses  and 
clothes  and  horses,  and  a  lot  of  other  things 
which  their  business  or  practise  ought  not 
reasonably  to  stand. 

On  the  other  hand,  do  not  begin  your  life 
as  a  miser.  Do  not  let  the  new  home  proclaim 
by  its  barrenness  that  it  is  the  abode  of  a  poor 
young  man  asking  sympathy  and  aid  of  his 
friends.  "  Yes,  rent  a  piano,  by  all  means. 
Do  not  economize  on  your  wife  and  your 
home,"  advised  an  old  Methodist  preacher 
noted  for  his  horse-sense.    And  he  was  right. 

After  all,  what  is  the  purpose  and  end  of  all 
your  labor?  If  it  is  not  that  very  home,  I  do 
not  know  what  it  is.  Put  on  a  little  more 
steam,  therefore,  and  earn  enough  extra  to 
buy  a  picture.  And  get  a  good  one  while  you 
are  at  it.  It  will  not  break  you  up  to  buy  a 
really  good  etching.  A  fine  "  print "  is  infi- 
nitely better  than  a  poor  painting.  Anything 
is  better  than  a  poor  painting.  If  she  has 
good  taste,  your  wife  will  make  the  walls  of 
that  new  home  most  attractive  with  an  aston- 
ishingly small  amount  of  money. 

It  is  the  new  home  you  and  she  are  making, 
remember  that.    Very  well;  you  cannot  make 

163 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

it  in  a  flat.  "Apartments  "  cannot  by  any 
magic  be  converted  into  a  home.  For  the  pur- 
poses of  a  liome,  better  a  separate  dweUing 
with  dry-goods  box  for  table  and  camp-stools 
for  chairs  than  tapestried  walls,  mosaic  floors, 
and  all  luxurioiisness  in  those  modern  struc- 
tures where  human  beings  hive. 

These  buildings  have  their  indispensable 
uses,  but  home-making  is  not  one  of  them. 
"Apartments  "  are  not  cheaper  for  you  and 
easier  for  her  than  a  house  to  yourselves — no, 
not  if  you  got  the  finest  apartments  for  noth- 
ing, not  even  if  you  were  paid  to  live  in  gilded 
rooms.  For  the  making  of  a  home  is  price- 
less. And  that  cannot  be  done  in  flats  or  ho- 
tels or  other  walled  and  roofed  herding  places. 
Every  man  would  like  to  have  a  picture  of 
"  the  house  he  was  born  in  " ;  but  who  would 
choose  a  hotel  for  a  birthplace?  Boniface 
himself  would  not  "admire"  (to  use  one  of 
our  Westernisms)  to  have  you  select  his  hos- 
telry for  that  purpose. 

Of  course  you  will  spend  all  of  your  extra 
time  at  home.  That  is  what  home  is  for.  Live 
in  your  home;  do  not  merely  eat  and  sleep 
there.  It  is  not  a  boarding-house,  remember 
that.  Books  are  there,  and  music  and  a  hu- 
man sympathy  and  a  marvelous  care  for  you, 

164 


THE  NEW  HOME 

under  whose  influence  alone  the  soul  of  a 
young  man  grows  into  real  grandeur,  power, 
and  beauty.  And  be  sure  that  you  let  each 
day  have  its  play-hour. 

"I  would  not  care  to  live,"  said  one  of  the 
very  ablest  and  most  eminent  members  of 
the  American  Catholic  priesthood — "  I  would 
not  care  to  live,"  said  he,  "  if  I  could  not  have 
my  play-hour,  music,  and  flowers.  They  are 
God's  gifts  and  my  necessity.  Every  young 
man  who  has  a  home  commits  a  crime  if  he 
does  not  each  day  bring  one  hour  of  joy  into 
his  household." 

The  man  who  said  that  is  not  only  brilliant 
and  wise,  but  one  of  the  most  exalted  souls 
it  has  ever  been  my  fortune  to  know.  And 
his  words  have  good  sense  in  them,  have  they 
not?  Make  that  good  sense  yours,  then. 
Make  a  play-hour  each  daj'-  for  yourself  and 
wife  and  children.  I  say  children,  for  I  as- 
sume, of  course,  that  when  you  are  making  a 
new  home  you  are  making  a  home  indeed. 

Very  well.  The  absence  of  children  is  either 
unfortunate  or  immoral.  A  purposely  child- 
less marriage  is  no  marriage  at  all ;  it  is  merelj^ 
an  arrangement.  Robert  Louis  Stevenson 
calls  it  *'  a  friendship  recognized  by  the  po- 
lice."    A  house  undisturbed  and  unglorified 

165 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

by  the  wailings  and  laughter  of  little  ones 
is  not  a  home — it  is  a  habitation. 

There  is  in  children  a  certain  immortality 
for  you.  Most  of  us  believe  in  life  after 
death;  and  that  belief  is  a  priceless  possession 
of  every  human  being  who  has  it.  But  even 
the  man  who  has  not  this  faith  beholds  his 
own  immortality  in  his  children.  "  Why  of 
course  I  am  immortal,"  said  a  scientist  who 
believed  that  death  ends  all.  "Of  course  I 
am  immortal,"  said  he,  "  there  goes  my  rein- 
carnation"; and  he  pointed  to  his  little  son, 
glorious  with  the  promise  of  an  exhaustless 
vitality. 

There  is  no  doubt  at  all  that  association  with 
infancy  and  youth  puts  back  the  clock  of  time 
for  each  of  us.  Besides  all  this,  it  is  the 
natural  life,  and  that  is  the  only  thing  worth 
while.  The  "  simple  life  "  is  all  right,  and 
the  "  strenuous  life  "  excellent.  The  "  artistic 
life  "  is  charming,  no  doubt,  and  all  the  other 
kinds  of  "  lives  "  have  their  places,  I  suppose. 
I  am  interested  in  all  of  them.  But  I  am 
much  more  interested  in  the  natural  life.  That 
alone  is  truthful.  And,  after  all,  only  the 
truthful  is  important. 

Get  into  the  habit  of  happiness.  It  is  posi- 
tively amazing  how  you  can  turn  every  little 

166 


THE   NEW  HOME 

incident  into  a  sunbeam.  And,  mark  you,  it  is 
quite  as  easy  to  take  the  other  course.  But 
what  a  coward  a  man  is  who  releases  in  his 
home  all  the  pent-up  irritability  and  disap- 
pointment of  the  day. 

There  is  no  sense  in  it,  either.  It  does  not 
make  you  less  black  of  spirit  to  fill  your  home 
with  gloom.  You  ought  not  to  do  it,  even 
from  the  view-point  of  good  health.  If  you 
eat  your  meal  in  a  sour  silence  which  almost 
curdles  the  cream  and  scares  your  wife  half 
to  death,  you  do  not  and  cannot  digest  your 
food.  If  you  have  had  a  hard  day,  say  to 
yourself,  "  Well,  that  was  a  hard  day.  Now 
for  some  rest  and  some  fun." 

Get  into  the  habit  of  being  happy,  I  tell  you. 
You  can  do  it.  Practise  saying  to  yourself, 
when  you  waken  in  the  morning,  "  Every- 
thing is  all  right,"  and  keep  on  saying  it.  You 
will  be  surprised  to  find  how  nearly  "  all  right  " 
the  mere  saying  of  it  at  the  beginning  of  the 
day  will  really  make  everything,  after  all.  This 
is  true  of  business  as  well  as  of  the  new  home. 
Prophets  of  gloom  are  never  popular,  and 
ought  not  to  be. 

Then,  too,  a  quiet  cheeriness  of  heart  makes 
you  treat  your  fellow  man  better;  and  this  is 
important  in  your  dealings  with  other  human 

167 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

male  animals.  They  will  make  it  unpleasant 
for  you  if  you  don't.  But  it  is  far  more  impor- 
tant in  your  new  home  than  it  is  out  in  the 
world  of  men.  That  is  what  the  new  home  is 
for — to  exercise  and  multiply  the  beauties  of 
character  and  conduct. 

Returning  again  to  the  view-point  of  busi- 
ness wisdom,  you  cannot  treat  your  wife  too 
well,  as  a  mere  matter  of  policy — though  you 
will  never  treat  her  well,  nor  anybody  else, 
from  that  low  motive.  I  am  merely  calling  the 
attention  of  your  commercial  mind  to  the  fact 
that  there  are  actually  dollars  and  cents  in  a 
reputation  for  chivalrous  bearing  in  your  new 
home. 

You  know  yourself  how  you  feel  toward  a 
man  of  whom  everybody  says,  "  He  is  good 
to  his  wife."  Everybody  wants  to  help  that 
kind  of  a  fellow.  If  he  is  a  strong  man,  his 
community  glories  in  his  strength  and  in- 
creases it  by  their  admiration  and  support.  If 
he  is  not  a  strong  man,  everybody  wishes  that 
he  were,  and  tries  in  a  thousand  ways,  which 
a  general  kindly  disposition  toward  him  sug- 
gests, to  supply  his  deficiencies. 

And  this  is  no  jug-handled  rule  either.  The 
same  thing  is  true  of  the  wife.  When  her  ac- 
quaintances declare  of  any  woman,  "  She  is 

168 


THE   NEW   HOME 

lovely  in  her  home,"  they  have  placed  upon  her 
brow  the  crown  of  their  ultimate  tribute  and 
regard.  It  depends  upon  both,  of  course, 
whether  these  domestic  beatitudes  will  exist  in 
the  new  home. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  it  depends  upon  the 
young  man  more  than  the  young  woman.  He 
is  a  7nan — and  that  is  everything.  And  being 
a  man,  he  should  have  a  large  and  kindly  for- 
bearance, a  sort  of  soothing  strength  and 
calming  serenity.  And  to  all  this  the  rule  of 
smile  and  cheeriness  is  helpful,  if  not  essential. 

When  I  was  a  boy  in  the  logging-camps,  I 
read  in  some  stray  newspaper  an  article  about 
the  influence  which  the  pleasant  countenance 
exercises  over  groups  of  men.  The  idea  was 
that  men  work  willingly  under  the  control  of  a 
strong  man  who  is  strong  enough  to  carry  in 
his  daily  look  the  suggestion  of  a  smile.  It 
worked  splendidly.  It  has  never  been  satisfac- 
torily explained  why  it  is  next  to  impossible 
for  a  man  "to  be  down  on  his  luck  "  if  he 
will  only  keep  the  corners  of  his  mouth  turned 
up.  Perhaps  it  is  the  mental  effort  of  forcing 
this  mechanism  of  a  smile  which  brings  a  really 
happy  state  of  mind. 

Whatever  the  cause,  it  is  literally  true  that 
you  cannot  look  blackly  on  the  world  and  your 
12  169 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

own  fortunes  if  the  lines  of  your  face  are  as- 
cending instead  of  drooping.  This  muscular 
state  of  your  countenance  is  connected  in  some 
strange  way  with  that  mysterious  thing  called 
the  mind;  for  you  will  find,  if  you  try  it,  that 
a  sort  of  serenity  of  soul  comes  to  you,  and  a 
strong  confidence  that  "everything  will  come 
out  right  in  the  end."  When  we  Americans 
are  older  we  shall  pay  more  attention  to  these 
things. 

The  Japanese  neglect  none  of  these  deep 
psychological  truths  in  warfare.  It  is  said  that 
they  are  taught  to  smile  in  action,  and  espe- 
cially when  they  charge.  Doubtless  this  report 
is  true.  It  has  at  bottom  the  same  reason 
that  music  in  battle  has.  What  could  lie  more 
terrifying  than  the  approach  of  an  enemy  de- 
termined on  your  death,  and  who  looks  upon 
your  execution  as  so  pleasant  and  easy  a  thing 
that  he  smiles  about  it  or  who  regards  his  own 
possible  extinction  as  no  unhappy  consumma- 
tion? 

Also  it  is  interesting  to  note  how  a  pleasant 
expression  begets  its  like.  I  have  observed 
this  even  in  Manchuria,  and  other  parts  of 
China  —  a  smile  unfailingly  won  a  return 
smile  from  children  who  were  watching  you 
from  the  fields,  whereas  a  frown  would  in- 

170 


THE   NEW  HOME 

stantly  becloud  the  little  face  with  a  kindred 
expression  of  disfavor.  I  am  spending  a  good 
deal  of  time  upon  this  item  of  good  cheer  in 
the  new  home,  because  I  think  that  as  long  as 
happiness  surrounds  the  American  fireside  all 
is  well  wdth  the  Republic. 

There  is  no  investment  which  yields  such 
dividends  as  the  society  you  will  find  in  your 
home.  The  company,  the  talk,  the  silent  sym- 
pathy of  that  sagacious  and  congenial  per- 
son who  is  your  wife  yield  a  return  in  spirit, 
wisdom,  moral  tone,  and  pure  pleasure  to  be 
found  in  like  measure  nowhere  else  on  earth. 

It  is  said  that  Charles  James  Fox,  the  most 
resourceful  debater  the  British  Parliament  has 
ever  seen,  was  so  fond  of  his  home  and  his  wife 
that  he  would  actually  absent  himself  from 
Parliament  for  the  sheer  pleasure  of  her  pres- 
ence and  conversation.  Lord  Beaconsfield, 
who,  we  are  told,  married  for  the  mere  purpose 
of  ambition,  afterward  fell  deeply  in  love 
with  his  wife  and  spent  every  moment  he  could 
in  her  society.  She  proved,  too,  to  be  his 
shrewdest  counselor. 

Bismarck's  bomidless  love  for  his  princess 
increased  with  the  years;  yet  she  was  chiefly, 
and  perhaps  only,  a  German  "  hausfrau  " — 
an  ideal  housewife.     The  German  people  par- 

171 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

ticularly  loved  the  wife  of  Bismarck  because 
of  these  exclusively  domestic  traits.  Perhaps 
that  was  why  he  adored  her  more  and  more 
as  the  years  went  by.  Gladstone,  who  was 
a  very  surly  and  irritable  person,  declared 
that  his  wife  had  made  his  life  "  cushiony." 

Of  course  it  is  taken  for  granted  in  this 
paper  that  the  young  American  wife  is  this 
kind  of  a  woman — wise  and  gentle  and  good- 
natured — above  all  things  good-natured.  For 
says  the  Bible,  "  It  is  better  to  dwell  in  the  wil- 
derness than  with  a  contentious  and  an  angry 
woman."  But  read  what  is  written  in  the 
Book  of  the  right  kind  of  a  woman — one  "  in 
whose  tongue  is  the  law  of  kindness,"  as  the 
Scriptures'  exquisite  phraseology  has  it. 

I  don't  like  the  tone  of  the  common  com- 
ment of  the  American  medical  profession 
about  the  neurotic  condition  of  our  American 
women.  Our  physicians  are  saying  that  there 
is  not  one  American  woman  in  a  hundred  who 
is  nervously  normal.  The  profession  declares 
that  they  are  excitable,  irritable,  peevish,  and 
that  this  unfortunate  state  is  produced  by  the 
unnatural  and  absurd  tension  they  are  under 
all  the  time. 

Their  so-called  "  social  duties  ";  the  minute 
and  nerve-destroying  precision  of  their  house- 

172 


THE   NEW  HOME 

keeping;  their  unnecessary  overloading  of 
themselves  with  tasks  futile  and  fictitious;  the 
determination  to  "  appear "  a  little  better 
than  their  neighbors,  and,  above  all,  to  have 
their  children  (their  one  or  two  children) 
particularly  spick  and  span;  the  long  cata- 
logue of  folly  into  which  our  high-geared, 
modern  civilization  has  led  our  women,  and 
through  no  fault  of  theirs — "  all  these,"  said 
an  eminent  neurologist,  in  talking  of  this  ab- 
sorbing topic,  "  are  impairing  the  agreeable- 
ness  and  curtailing  the  usefulness  of  our 
women,  and  will  in  the  end  destroy  our  women 
themselves." 

I  hope  it  is  not  true.  If  it  is  true,  we  had 
better  find  the  cause  of  it  and  apply  the 
remedy,  or  we  are  a  lost  people;  for  that  na- 
tion is  doomed  whose  women  haye  ceased  to 
be  vital,  good-tempered,  and  home-loving. 

May  not  the  too  heavy  early  education  of 
young  girls  have  something  to  do  with  this 
later  desperation  of  their  nerves?  Is  not  the 
blood  taken  from  vital  centers  where  Nature 
meant  it  to  go  for  the  upbuilding  of  woman- 
hood and  forced  into  the  brain  at  a  period 
when  Nature  meant  that  brain  to  be  the  very 
paradise  of  joyous  dreams  and  happy  imagin- 
ings?     While  we  may  thus  gain  a  staccato 

173 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

smartness,  a  jerky  and  inconsequent  bril- 
liancy, do  we  not  lose  something  of  the  natural 
woman  and  the  delicious  heartiness,  sponta- 
neous wit  and  instinctive  wisdom  of  her?  I 
venture  no  opinion  here — I  merely  suggest 
the  query.  Why  don't  the  doctors  begin  a 
crusade  about  this?     It  is  their  business. 

The  keen,  practical  sense  of  women  in 
purely  business  affairs  has  been  noted  in  other 
papers,  and  the  causes  of  it.  The  young  man 
who  neglects  this  helpfulness  simply  throws 
away  wisdom.  Not  to  counsel  with  your  wife 
on  business  matters  that  affect  your  mutual 
fortune  is  sheer  stupidity.  Also,  it  is  morally 
wrong.  From  the  very  nature  of  her  she  is 
more  interested  than  you  in  strengthening 
the  walls  of  your  new  home,  in  making 
your  joint  experiment  in  the  living  of  life  a 
beautiful  success.  Her  words  are  the  counsel 
of  instinct,  and  therefore  of  Nature.  And 
Nature  is  wise. 

Of  course  there  are  some  things  you  cannot 
tell  her.  If  you  are  a  lawyer,  or  a  doctor,  you 
are  dishonorable  if  you  tell  your  wife  or  any 
other  human  being  any  secret  of  client  or 
patient.  Not  that  she  is  not  to  be  trusted — 
for  she  is.  She  will  carry  to  her  grave  any 
secret  that  affects  you.    But  the  disclosures  of 

174 


THE  NEW  HOME 

client  or  patient  are  not  your  secrets.  If  they 
were,  she  would  be  entitled  to  know  them — 
ouffht  to  know  them.  But  no  woman  of  sense 
will  permit  you  to  tell  her  any  professional 
confidences.  Don't  expect  her  to  be  helpful 
to  you  in  your  profession  or  occupation  except 
by  counsel. 

Of  course  there  is  the  great  and  inesti- 
mable help  that  comes  from  the  mere  fact  that 
she  is  your  wife.  After  all,  that  is  the  very 
greatest  help  any  woman  can  be  to  any 
man.  The  care  of  home,  the  upbringing  of 
children,  the  strengthening  of  a  husband's 
character  here  and  there,  the  detection  of  those 
thousand  little  vices  of  manner  and  speech  and 
thought  which  develop  in  every  man — in  short, 
the  living  of  a  natural  woman's  life — is  the 
only  method  of  real  helpfulness  of  a  woman  to 
a  man.    And  it  is  a  priceless  helpfulness. 

Particularly  is  this  true  of  political  life  and 
career.  A  man  who  must  be  lifted  to  distinc- 
tion by  his  wife's  apron-strings,  does  not  de- 
serve distinction.  In  the  end,  he  does  not  get  it 
— the  apron-strings  usually  break,  and  they 
ought  to  break.  It  may  be  stated  as  a  general 
truth  that  a  man  is  never  helped  by  the  ac- 
tive participation  of  the  wife  in  his  political 
affairs. 

175 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

There  are  notable  exceptions,  just  as  there 
are  to  every  rule.  But  as  a  generalization  this 
statement  is  accurate.  Men  resent  that  kind 
of  thing  in  politics.  They  want  a  man  who 
aspires  to  anything  to  be  worthy  of  that  thing 
on  his  own  account.  They  want  their  leader 
to  be  a  leader;  and  no  leader  is  "managed" 
in  politics  by  his  wife.  They  are  right  about 
it,  too.  But  whether  they  are  right  or  wrong, 
that  is  the  way  they  feel. 

So  the  only  help  which  a  woman  can  be  to 
a  man  in  politics  is  just  to  be  a  wife  in  all 
that  that  term  implies.  And  what  greater 
help  than  that  could  there  be?  She  who  im- 
presses the  American  millions  with  the  fact 
that  she  is  the  ideal  wife  and  mother  has  made 
the  strongest,  subtlest  appeal  to  the  nation. 
But  she  cannot  do  this  by  "  mixing  up  in 
politics,"  by  trying  to  plan  and  manage  her 
husband's  campaigns,  and  so  forth.  For  the 
people's  instinct  is  unerring.  We  Americans 
are  a  home-making  and  a  home-loving  people ; 
and  as  a  people  we  adore  the  American  wife 
and  mother — the  maker  and  keeper  of  the 
American  home. 

So  you  attend  to  your  politics  or  your  busi- 
ness and  let  your  wife  attend  to  hers;  and 
she  will  be  happy  and  glad  to  make  your  home 

176 


THE  NEW  HOME 

the  exclusive  scene  of  her  activities  if  you  will 
only  be  man  enough  to  do  a  man's  full  part  in 
the  world  and  leave  no  room  for  a  woman  of 
spirit  to  see  that  you  are  not  doing  a  man's 
full  part,  and,  therefore,  to  try  to  help  you  out. 

I  sometimes  think  that  the  propaganda  that 
woman  is  the  equal  of  man,  and  that  it  is 
all  right  for  her  to  take  on  man's  work  in 
business  and  the  professions,  is  due  not  so 
much  to  an  abnormal  development  in  her  char- 
acter as  it  is  to  a  decadence  in  our  manhood. 
At  least  I  have  always  observed  that  the  wife 
of  a  really  masterful  man  finds  her  greatest 
happiness  in  being  merely  his  wife,  and  never 
attempts  to  take  any  of  his  tasks  upon  her. 
And  why  should  she  assume  his  labor?  Her 
natural  work  in  the  world  is  as  much  harder 
than  his  as  it  is  nobler  and  finer. 

Speaking  of  politics,  I  have  always  thought 
men,  young  and  old,  ought  to  consult  their 
wives  and  families  about  how  they  cast  their 
ballot.  What  right  has  any  man  to  vote  as 
he  individually  thinks  best?  He  is  the  head 
of  the  family,  it  is  true,  but  he  is  only  one 
of  the  family,  after  all.  This  Republic  is  not 
made  up  of  individuals ;  it  is  made  up  of  fam- 
ilies. Its  unit  is  not  the  boarding-house,  but 
the  home. 

177 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

The  Senate  of  the  United  States  is  the 
greatest  forum  of  free  debate  on  earth;  but 
the  comisel  of  the  American  fireside  is  far 
more  powerful.  Wife  and  children  have  a 
vital  interest  in  every  ballot  deposited  by 
father  and  husband — an  interest  as  definite 
and  tangible  as  his  own.  Every  voter,  there- 
fore, ought  to  discuss  with  wife  and  children, 
with  parents,  brothers,  and  sisters,  all  public 
questions,  and  vote  according  to  the  composite 
family  conviction. 

No  greater  method  of  public  safety  can  be 
imagined  than  for  the  American  family  to 
"  size  up  "  the  American  public  man,  and  then 
have  the  voters  of  that  family  sustain  or  re- 
ject him  at  the  polls,  according  to  the  verdict 
of  the  household.  If  such  were  the  rule,  only 
those  men  who  are  of  the  people  when  they 
are  first  placed  in  public  office,  and  who  keep 
close  to  the  people  ever  after,  would  be  elected 
to  anything. 

Such  a  method,  too,  would  insm'e  a  steadier 
current  of  national  policy,  subject  to  fewer 
variations.  There  would  not  be  so  many  fads 
to  deflect  sound  and  sane  statesmanship.  So 
bjT-  all  means,  young  man,  begin  your  career 
as  a  citizen  by  making  your  wife  a  partner 
in  every  vote  you  cast. 

178 


THE   NEW   HOME 

Nobody  denies  that  men  and  women  should 
have  equahty  of  privilege  and  equality  of 
rights;  but  equality  of  duties  and  similarity  of 
work  is  absurd.  The  contrary  idea  was  beau- 
tifully satirized  in  the  now  famous  toast: 

"  Here's  to  our  women :  God  bless  them ! 
Once  our  superiors,  now  our  equals." 

The  truth  is  that  it  is  impossible  to  compare 
men  and  women.  They  are  not  the  same  be- 
ings. They  have  different  characteristics,  dif- 
ferent methods,  different  capacities,  and  dif- 
ferent view-points  of  life.  Each  supplements 
the  other.  Doubtless  the  woman  has  the 
choicer  lot.  Surely  this  is  true  abstractly 
speaking.  Suppose  we  should  all  stand  dis- 
embodied souls,  or  rather  unembodied  souls, 
on  the  edge  of  the  forming  universe;  and  sup- 
pose that,  to  these  abstract  intelligences,  the 
Creator  should  say: 

"  I  am  forming  the  universe.  I  am  creating 
a  wonderful  place  called  Earth.  I  am  going 
to  clothe  3^ou  each  in  human  form,  marvelousty 
and  beautifully  made,  the  highest  work  of  my 
hands.  Some  of  you  shall  be  men.  To  these 
men  I  will  give  the  task  of  labor  in  the  fields, 
of  warfare  with  wild  beasts.  It  shall  be  your 
duty  to  subdue  wildernesses,  and  to  construct 
and  defend  a  dwelling-place  for  this  other  one 

179 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

whom  I  am  going  to  make  a  woman.  There- 
fore I  shall  give  j^ou  men  large  bones  to  deal 
strong  blows,  and  a  heavy  skull  to  withstand 
the  like.  I  shall  give  you  courage  and  physi- 
cal power  and  audacity  and  daring. 

"  The  woman's  mission  shall  be  different. 
It  shall  be  for  her  to  create  and  preserve  hu- 
man hapjnness.  She  shall  do  this  in  the  dwell- 
ing-place which  the  man  constructs  for  her, 
and  which  will  be  called  home.  There  shall  she 
bind  up  his  womids  and  give  him  rest  and  com- 
fort. I  will  give  into  her  keeping  also  the 
making  of  the  race,  and  thus  the  control  of  the 
destiny  of  the  world.  And  so  this  woman  shall 
be  given  delicate  bones  and  a  deft  touch  and 
voice  of  music  and  eye  of  peace  and  heart 
of  tenderness  and  mind  of  beautiful  wisdom." 

Does  this  comparison  not  make  it  clear  that 
woman  has  by  far  a  more  exalted  mission  than 
man?  But  the  mission  of  both  man  and 
woman  is  sufficiently  grand  and  noble  if  each 
performs  it,  and  within  its  limitations  is  con- 
tent. 

Have  plenty  of  friends.  Cultivate  them. 
You  cultivate  your  business.  You  cultivate 
vegetables.  But  friends  are  more  precious 
than  either  business  or  vegetables.  Cultivate 
friends,    therefore.      Call   on   them   and   let 

180 


THE   NEW   HOME 

them  call  on  you.  And  do  it  in  the  good  old- 
fashioned,  hearty,  American  way. 

But  be  sure  you  make  your  friends  for  the 
sake  of  the  relation  itself.  Do  not  misuse  that 
sacred  relation  for  j'-our  personal  advantage. 
Do  not  make  friends  for  the  purposes  of  suc- 
cess. Make  friends  for  the  purposes  of  friend- 
ship. Be  true  to  them,  therefore.  Don't  neg- 
lect them  when  they  can  no  longer  serve  you. 
And  serve  you  them.  And  let  your  service  to 
your  friends  be  a  glad  service,  a  service  which 
is  its  own  reward. 

He  who  seeks  another's  friendship  because 
he  needs  it  in  his  politics  or  business,  will  throw 
that  friendship  away  like  a  worn-out  glove 
when  his  ends  have  been  accomplished.  JNIake 
friends  and  nourish  friendship  because  friends 
and  friendships  are  life  itself.  Remember  that 
you  do  not  live  in  order  to  achieve  success ;  you 
achieve  success  in  order  to  live. 

It  is  the  twentieth  century  you  are  living 
in — don't  forget  that.  Keep  up,  therefore; 
keep  abreast  of  things.  Keep  in  the  current 
of  the  world's  thought  and  feeling.  News- 
papers are  literally  indispensable  to  you;  and 
you  should  take  two  of  them — the  morning 
paper  and  the  evening  paper.  Get  up  fifteen 
minutes  earlier  in  the  morning,  so  that  you 

181 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

may  have  time  to  look  over  the  morning  paper 
carefully. 

Do  not  read  it  idly.  Read  it  with  discrimi- 
nation. And  do  not  read  it  without  discuss- 
ing it  with  your  little  family.  The  war  in 
Manchuria,  the  character  of  a  public  man,  the 
policy  of  an  administration,  the  state  of  the 
Nation's  business — all  these  are  mental  food 
which  you  need  as  much  as  you  need  your 
breakfast.  One  thoroughly  up-to-date  maga- 
zine also  is  helpful.  Build  you  a  library  also. 
You  do  not  want  the  new  home  to  be  a  mere 
physical  habitation.  You  want  it  to  be  a  home 
for  the  mind  as  well  as  the  body,  do  you  not  ? 

I  heard  of  a  young  lawyer  who  put  aside 
a  little  of  every  fee  as  a  sinking-fund  for  a 
library.  He  and  his  wife  bought  books  with 
that — not  books  for  the  office,  but  books  for 
their  home.  He  succeeded — "  won  out  " — 
"  won  out  "  with  his  cases,  which  was  his  pro- 
fession's business,  and  "  won  out  "  with  his 
happiness  and  hers,  which  was  his  life's  busi- 
ness. 

The  theater  is  the  highest  form  of  combined 
education,  amusement,  and  repose  which  hu- 
man intelligence  has  yet  invented.  It  was  so 
in  Greece,  and  it  is  so  now.  The  theater 
occasionally  is  good  for  you.    But  let  the  play 

182 


THE  NEW  HOME 

you  go  to  see  be  high-grade.  Inferior  per- 
formances on  the  stage  will  destroy  your  taste 
as  surely  as  will  the  continued  propinquity  of 
poor  pictui-es.     The  same  is  true  of  music. 

Music  has  a  mysterious  quality  which  exalts. 
It  has  been  noted  that  soldiers  gladly  go  to 
their  death  under  its  influence,  who  otherwise 
would  fight  unwillingly.  It  is  a  great  pro- 
ducer of  thought  also.  Some  men  can  write 
well  only  under  its  inspiration.  Educate  your- 
self uj}  in  it,  therefore.  Do  not  be  content 
with  the  simple  melodies  and  old  songs.  They 
will  never  lose  their  charm,  and  ought  not; 
but  they  are  not  the  best  which  music  has 
for  you. 

What  I  am  now  insisting  upon  is  a  constant 
and  careful  nourishment  of  the  mind  and  soul 
within  you,  so  that  the  new  home  may  each  day 
be  more  and  more  the  dwelling-place  of  beautj^ 
and  the  abode  of  real  happiness.  You  cannot 
think  of  the  old  home  without  thinking  of  your 
mother;  and  you  cannot  think  of  your  mother 
without  thinking  of  the  Bible. 

A  young  man  and  a  young  woman  who  are 
making  a  new  home  make  an  irreparable  mis- 
take if  they  leave  out  the  religious  influence. 
Both  ought  to  belong  to  church,  and  to  the 
same  church.    This  is  a  matter  of  prudence  as 

183 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

well  as  of  righteousness;  for  get  it  into  your 
consciousness  that  you  must  be  in  harmony 
with  the  people  of  whom  you  two  are  one. 
Your  new  home  must  be  in  accord  with  the 
millions  of  other  homes  which  make  up  this 
Nation;  and  the  American  people  at  bottom 
are  a  religious  people. 

Also,  you  will  find  that  nothing  will  please 
your  wife  so  much  as  to  resolve  upon  regular 
church  attendance,  and  then  to  reduce  that  re- 
solve to  a  habit.  It  is  good  for  you,  too;  you 
feel  as  though  you  had  taken  a  moral  bath 
after  you  get  home  from  service  every  Sunday. 

Of  course,  being  an  American  and  a  gentle- 
man, you  will  have  the  American  gentleman's 
conception  of  all  womanhood,  and  his  adoring 
reverence  for  the  one  woman  who  has  blessed 
him  with  her  life's  companionship.  You  will 
cherish  her,  therefore,  in  that  way  which  none 
but  the  American  gentleman  quite  under- 
stands. You  will  be  gentle  with  her,  and 
watchful  of  her  health  and  happiness. 

You  will  be  ever  brave  and  kind,  wise  and 
strong,  deserving  that  respect  which  she  is  so 
anxious  to  accord  you;  earning  that  devotion 
which  by  the  very  nature  of  her  being  she 
must  bestow  on  you;  winning  that  admiration 
which  it  is  the  crowning  pride  of  her  life  to 

184 


THE   NEW  HOME 

yield  to  you;  and,  finally,  receiving  that  care 
which  only  her  hands  can  give,  and  a  life-long 
joy  which,  increasing  with  the  years,  is  fullest 
and  most  perfect  when  both  your  heads  are 
white  and  your  mutual  steps  no  longer  wan- 
der from  the  threshold  of  that  "  new  home  " 
which  you  built  in  the  beginning  of  your  lives, 
and  which  is  now  the  "  old  home  "  to  your 
children,  who  beneath  its  roof  "  rise  up  and 
call  you  blessed." 


13  185 


THE   YOUNG   LAWYER   AND   HIS   BEGINNINGS 

It  used  to  be  a  part  of  the  creed  of  a  certain 
denomination  that  a  man  should  not  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  ministry  who  had  not  received 
his  "  call."  It  was  necessary  that  he  should 
hear  the  Voice  speaking  with  his  tongue,  and 
saying,  "  Woe  is  unto  me,  if  I  preach  not  the 
Gospel." 

This  is  true  of  the  profession  of  law.  So, 
at  the  beginning  of  your  beginnings,  do  not 
begin  at  all  unless  you  see  a  certainty  of  mis- 
ery if  you  do  not.  Unless  you  are  convinced 
that  you  would  rather  work,  toil,  nay,  slave 
for  years  to  secure  recognition  in  the  law,  than 
to  be  honored  and  enriched  in  some  other  occu- 
pation, do  not  enter  this  profession  of  supreme 
ardor. 

And  above  all  things,  do  not  enter  it  if  you 
expect  to  practise  law  principally  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  money.  It  is  not  a  money- 
making  profession.  The  same  effort,  acumen, 
and  enthusiasm  expended  in  almost  any  other 

186 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

occupation  will  bring  you  financial  returns 
tremendously  out  of  proportion  to  your  most 
successful  compensation  in  the  law,  measured 
by  mere  money.  The  money-making  concep- 
tion of  our  profession  is  not  only  erroneous, 
but  ruinous ;  for  you  must  remember,  to  begin 
with,  that  you  are  practising  the  science  of 
justice. 

If  possible,  get  a  thorough  college  education 
before  you  touch  a  law  book.  If  you  can  get 
a  college  education,  do  not  "  read  law  "  while 
you  are  at  college.  If  you  go  to  college, 
do  not  take  what  is  known  as  the  "  scientific  " 
course,  or  "  physical  "  course.  Take  the  clas- 
sical course.  Next  to  geometry  and  loga- 
rithms and  the  Bible,  the  best  discipline  pre- 
paratory to  making  you  a  lawyer  is  the 
translation  of  Latin.  Latin  is  the  most  logi- 
cal language  the  world  has  ever  seen,  or  is 
likely  ever  to  see. 

After  you  get  your  college  course,  then  go 
to  a  thoroughly  first-class  law  school.  After 
this,  spend  two  or  three  years  in  active  work 
in  the  office  of  some  successful  lawyer  who  has 
lots  of  practise,  and  who  will  load  off  on  your 
shoulders  as  much  work  as  possible. 

If  you  cannot  go  to  a  law  school,  your  train- 
ing in  the  law  office  will  do  you  nearly  as 

187 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

well.  You  can  get  along  without  your  law 
school,  but  you  can  never  get  along  without 
your  training  in  the  law  office.  The  way  to 
learn  to  swim  is  to  swim. 

But  if  you  cannot  get  a  college  education, 
do  not  get  discouraged.  It  is  possible  that  you 
are  an  Abraham  Lincoln,  or  a  John  Marshall, 
or  some  person  like  that;  and  if  you  are  you 
will  succeed  anyhow.  Even  if  you  are  not  so 
highly  gifted  you  can  win  in  the  law  without 
a  college  education  if  you  are  naturally  a  law- 
yer and  will  tvork  hard  enough.  If  you  have 
to  choose  between  a  law  school  and  a  college 
education,  take  the  latter.  But  the  training 
afforded  by  a  clerkship  in  an  active  lawyer's 
office  is  more  helpful  than  either. 

If  you  can  be  so  fortunate  as  to  get  the 
firm  or  attorney  with  whom  you  are  studying 
to  let  you  draft  pleadings,  take  depositions, 
examine  witnesses,  make  arguments  to  court 
and  jury,  get  out  transcripts  for  appeal,  write 
briefs,  petitions,  motions,  and  all  the  rest 
of  that  careful  and  painstaking  work  which 
makes  the  daily  life  of  the  lawyer,  you  will 
equip  yourself  for  actual  practise  better  than 
in  any  other  way  I  know  of. 

The  fii'm  will  gladly  let  you  do  this  work 
if  you  show  yourself  competent.     But  this 

188 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

does  not  mean  that  you  are  merely  to  sit  around 
the  office  and  say  "  bright  things."  There  is 
nothing  in  "  bright  things  " — there  is  every- 
thing in  good  judgment  and  downright  hard 
work. 

In  active  practise  never  forget  that  you  are 
a  sworn  officer  of  justice  quite  as  much  as 
is  the  judge  on  the  bench.  It  is  impossible 
for  you  to  put  your  ideals  of  your  profession 
too  high  or  to  attach  yourself  to  them  too 
firmly.  I  am  no  admirer  of  the  acidulous 
character  of  John  Adams  (not  that  he  was 
not  both  great  and  good,  however,  for  he  was 
- — but  he  was  too  soui'),  yet  he  announced  a 
great  thing,  and  lived  up  to  it,  when  he  de- 
clared that  he  was  practising  law  for  the  pur- 
poses of  justice  first  and  a  living  afterward. 
'(But,  then,  John  Adams  announced  many 
great  things;  and  what  he  announced  he  lived 
up  to.     He  was  supremely  honest.) 

"  Never  take  a  case,"  said  Horace  Mann, 
"  unless  you  believe  your  client  is  right  and 
his  cause  is  just."  On  the  contrary.  Lord 
Brougham  declared  that  "  the  conscientious 
lawyer  must  be  at  the  service  of  the  criminal 
as  well  as  of  the  state."  And  this  great  law- 
yer proceeds  to  argue  with  characteristic  abil- 
ity that  it  is  as  much  the  duty  of  the  lawyer 

189 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

to  work  for  the  cause  he  knows  to  be  wrong 
as  for  the  cause  he  knows  to  be  right. 

Briefly,  the  reason  is  that  it  is  the  very 
essence  of  justice  that  every  man  shall  have 
his  day  in  court;  that  the  attorney  is  but  the 
trained  and  educated  mouthpiece  of  his  client ; 
and  that  to  refuse  the  cause  of  a  client  in 
which  the  attorney  does  not  believe  is  to  rele- 
gate all  the  controversies  to  the  judge  in  the 
first  instance,  which,  of  course,  would  render 
the  administration  of  practical  justice  impos- 
sible. 

This  is  the  prevailing  practise  of  our  pro- 
fession, and  it  is  a  serious  thing  to  question 
its  correctness.  Its  ethics  are  as  wide  as  they 
are  ingenious,  and  when  one  beholds  them 
through  the  medium  of  the  great  English- 
man's wonderful  argument  thej^  seem  radiant 
with  aggressive  truth.  Nevertheless,  I  am  al- 
most of  opinion  that  Horace  Mann  was  right. 
It  is  certain  that  in  his  beginnings  the  young 
lawyer  ought  to  lean  to  that  view. 

If  you  consider  it  your  duty  to  take  any 
side  of  any  case  that  oifers,  right  or  wrong, 
it  is  no  far  cry  to  considering  it  your  duty  to 
make  the  cause  you  have  espoused  a  good  one 
before  the  court.  And  when  that  conception 
has    shot    its    cancerous    roots    and    filaments 

190 


THE    YOUNG  LAWYER 

through  your  brain  and  conscience,  the  sugges- 
tion to  your  unscrupulous  chent  of  facts  that 
do  not  exist,  and  all  the  alluring  infamies  of 
sharp  practise,  are  possible. 

It  is  said  that  burglary  exercises  such  a  fas- 
cination that,  once  the  delirium  of  its  danger 
is  tasted,  a  man  can  never  put  that  fatal  wine 
away.  An  old  and  distinguished  lawyer  once 
told  me  that  one  of  the  most  brilliant  young 
lawyers  he  ever  knew  said  to  him,  at  the  con- 
clusion of  a  legal  duel  in  which  he  had  resorted 
to  the  sharpest  practise  and  won,  "  That  was 
the  most  delicious  experience  of  my  life." 

Yes,  and  it  was  the  most  fatal.  He  became, 
and  is,  an  attorney  of  uncommon  resource, 
ability,  and  success,  with  many  cases  and  heavy 
fees;  nevertheless  his  life  is  a  failure,  for  his 
profession  and  even  his  clients  know  him  for 
a  dealer  in  tricks.  Senator  McDonald,  an 
ideal  lawyer  in  the  ethics,  learning,  and  practise 
of  his  profession,  told  me  that  one  of  the  jus- 
tices of  the  Supreme  Court  once  said  to  him 
of  a  certain  great  corporation  lawyer  of 
acknowledged  power  and  almost  unrivaled 
learning : 

"  ]Mr.  ——  would  be  the  greatest  lawyer  in 
the  world  if  he  were  not  a  scoundrel.  As  it 
is,  I  brace  myself  to  resist  him  every  time  he 

191 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

appears  before  me."  One  of  the  ablest  Cir- 
cuit Court  judges  of  the  Federal  bench  said 
almost  precisely  the  same  thing  to  me  of  the 
same  man. 

So  you  perceive  it  does  not  pay  to  be  un- 
derstood to  be  capable,  or  even  great,  in  the 
wrong.  In  time  it  means  ruin;  and  therefore 
I  think,  on  the  whole,  that  it  would  be  wise 
for  you  never  to  take  a  cause  which,  after  you 
have  a  full  statement  from  your  client,  you 
believe  to  be  wrong. 

Many  of  the  most  excellent  men  of  our  pro- 
fession will  dissent  from  this  view.  Their  ar- 
gument is  usually  that  of  Lord  Brougham, 
summarized  above.  Also  they  will  declare  that 
a  lawyer  may  be  quite  wi'ong  in  his  first  im- 
pression that  his  client  has  not  the  right  of  an 
impending  controversy.  They  will  cite  you  in- 
stances where  they  have  entered  into  the  con- 
duct of  a  case  with  much  doubt  in  their  hearts 
as  to  the  rightfulness  of  their  client's  position ; 
but  that  this  doubt  became  an  affirmative  cer- 
tainty before  they  were  half  through  with  it — 
they  knew  their  client  was  right. 

The  answer  to  this  is  that  any  man  can  work 
himself  into  an  enthusiastic  belief  in  almost 
anything  if  he  goes  upon  the  theory  that  the 
thing  is  true,  and  gives  all  his  energy  and  abil- 

192 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

ity  to  proving  its  truthfulness  to  others  and 
to  himself.  This  is  peculiarly  the  case  with 
the  most  sincere  and  genuine  men.  I  repeat, 
therefore,  that  upon  a  point  so  vital,  and  about 
which  there  are  such  sharp  differences  of  opin- 
ion by  equally  good  and  wise  men,  it  is  better 
for  you  to  incline  to  the  stricter  view  of  legal 
ethics. 

So  if  you  believe  your  client  to  be  in  the 
wrong,  frankly  tell  him  so;  show  him  why; 
induce  him  to  compromise  and  to  settle,  if 
he  ought.  If  he  will  not  because  he  is  ob- 
stinate, he  will  probably  lose  his  case  any- 
how, and  of  course  blame  his  lawyer  for  the 
loss.  So  that  if  you  do  not  have  that  case 
you  have  lost  nothing.  On  the  other  hand, 
you  have  gained.  The  client  will  say:  "  If  I 
had  followed  his  advice  I  should  not  have  had 
the  expense  and  humiliation  of  defeat." 

In  ninetj^-nine  cases  out  of  a  hundred  the 
honest  client  will  respect  you  for  your  position. 
If  the  client  persists  in  his  course  because  he 
is  a  scoundrel,  then,  doubly,  you  cannot  afford 
to  take  his  unjust  case.  After  a  few  years 
of  such  practise  you  will  have  acquired  a  moral 
influence  with  court,  jury,  and  people  which 
will  be,  even  from  a  money  point  of  view, 
the  most  valuable   item   in   your   equipment. 

193 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

Public  confidence  is  the  young  man's  best  asset. 
And  you  will  be  surprised  to  find  how  little 
you  will  lose,  in  the  way  of  fees,  by  this  course. 

Of  course  there  is  a  large  class  of  cases  in 
which  the  correct  application  of  the  law  is  very 
doubtful,  with  lines  of  decisions  on  both  sides ; 
as,  for  example,  in  cases  of  the  distribution  of 
funds  of  an  insolvent  corporation,  constitu- 
tional questions,  and  the  relative  equities  of 
conflicting  interests.  These  are  fair  examples 
of  controversies  where  a  lawyer  may  rightfully 
and  righteously  accept  a  retainer  upon  any 
of  half-a-dozen  sides.  But  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  practise  perhaps  it  is  better  to 
stick  to  Horace  Mann  rather  than  to  Lord 
Brougham,  and  reject  employment  in  a  case 
you  believe  to  be  wrong. 

While  the  law  is  not  a  money-making  pro- 
fession, either  in  theory  or  practise,  the  young 
lawyer  should  begin  by  charging  every  cent 
his  services  are  worth.  It  is  not  only  degra- 
ding, but  reveals  a  base  attitude  of  mind  and 
character,  to  charge  a  little  fee  in  the  begin- 
ning as  a  bait  for  a  bigger  one  in  future  cases. 
Maintain  the  dignity  of  your  effort. 

I  am  assuming  that  Nature  began  the  work 
of  making  you  a  lawyer  before  you  were  born ; 
that  you  have  been  preparing  yourself,  with 

194 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

the  enthusiasm  of  the  artist  and  the  passion  of 
professional  devotion,  for  the  vrork  of  your 
great  calhng,  by  years  and  j^ears  of  disciphne 
and  study  such  as  no  other  calHng  requires; 
that,  with  your  natural  qualification  and  your 
general  equipment,  you  are  bringing  to  your 
client's  particular  case  an  industry  that  knows 
no  limit  in  his  immediate  service. 

This  being  true,  tell  him  frankly  that  you 
propose  to  give  him  the  best  that  is  in  you 
(and  that  best  is  your  very  life — no  less — 
for  you  write  "  victory  "  at  the  end  of  every 
one  of  your  cases  with  your  heart's  blood;  or 
"defeat,"  if  you  do  not  win),  and  that  for 
this  best  which  is  in  you  you  will  charge  the 
highest  professional  fee  justified  by  your  ser- 
vices and  the  magnitude  and  difficulty  of  his 
case. 

At  the  same  time,  never  turn  a  poor  client 
away  from  your  office  door  because  that  client 
comes  with  no  gold  in  his  hand.  When  a  law- 
yer is  too  busy  to  give  counsel  without  fee  and 
without  charge  to  a  poor  man  or  woman,  that 
lawyer  has  too  much  business.  I  know — we 
all  know — of  very  eminent  lawyers  constantly 
engaged  in  causes  involving  large  interests, 
who  nevertheless  find  leisure,  many  times  each 
year,  to  serve  by  advice  and  counsel,  and  some- 

195 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

times  even  by  the  active  conduct  of  cases,  num- 
bers of  the  children  of  poverty,  and  to  serve 
them  without  a  penny  of  compensation. 

Be  very  careful  of  the  class  of  business  you 
accept  at  first.  I  knew  a  young  lawyer  who 
had  just  opened  his  office,  and  within  a  month, 
by  one  of  those  accidents  that  occur  to  every 
attorney,  he  was  offered  a  case  on  a  contingent 
fee  in  which  the  probability  of  considerable  re- 
ward amounted  almost  to  a  certainty. 

He  needed  the  money — was  nearly  penni- 
less. He  was  newly  married,  had  no  clients 
and  few  acquaintances;  but  it  was  not  the 
quality  of  practise  to  which  he  wished  to  devote 
his  career.  He  courteously  declined  the  case 
as  though  he  had  been  a  millionaire,  and 
directed  his  would-be  client  to  an  attorney 
who  would  care  for  it  properly. 

Out  of  that  case  the  latter  attornej^  by  a 
compromise,  in  two  weeks  made  fifteen  hun- 
dred dollars.  Nevertheless,  the  young  man 
was  right,  and  acted  with  a  far-seeing  wisdom 
as  rare  as  the  courage  which  accompanied  it. 
Of  course,  I  assume  that  you  are  going  into 
the  profession  for  the  purpose  of  becoming 
a  lawyer,  and  not  a  mere  conductor  of  legal 
strifes.     If  you  are,  you  must  deny  yourself. 

Self-denial  is  the  price  of  strength,  as  any 
196 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

college  athlete  will  tell  you.  Self-denial  is  the 
road  to  wealth,  as  any  banker  will  tell  you. 
Self-denial  is  the  method  of  all  excellencies, 
as  all  human  experience  will  tell  you.  But 
tliis  is  moralizing. 

I  do  not  mean  that  you  should  decline  small 
cases.  By  no  means.  Take  a  five-dollar  case, 
and  work  with  the  same  sincerity  that  you 
would  on  a  fifty-thousand-dollar  case.  "  De- 
spise not  the  day  of  small  things."  In  select- 
ing your  business,  I  refer  to  the  quality,  and 
not  the  magnitude,  of  cases.  Again,  again, 
and  still  again,  this  counsel:  Care  for  your 
small  case  with  the  same  painstaking  labor  you 
bestow  upon  a  large  one. 

Never  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  your  great- 
est reward  is  not  j^our  fee,  but  the  doing  of 
a  perfect  piece  of  work.  The  same  fervor 
and  ideality  should  govern  your  labors  in  a 
lawsuit  that  inspire  and  control  the  great 
artist  and  inventor.  A  distinguished  sculptor 
said  to  me  one  evening: 

"  I  wish  the  matter  of  compensation  could 
be  wiped  out  of  my  consideration.  I  must 
give  it  attention  for  obvious  reasons,  but  it 
is  the  matter  of  least  moment  to  me,  and  has 
absolutely  no  influence  upon  my  work." 

It  is  no  wonder  that  that  man  achieved  an 
197 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

immortal  renown  at  thirty-seven.  Doctor 
Barker,  the  recent  occupant  of  the  Chair  of 
Anatomy  in  the  University  of  Chicago,  re- 
cently elected  to  an  even  more  notable  position 
in  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  who  has  won 
for  himself  a  permanent  place  in  the  high  seats 
of  his  profession  by  his  work  on  neurology, 
was  in  a  company  one  evening.  Said  one  of 
his  admirers: 

"Why  don't  you  go  into  practise?  You 
could  easily  make  a  great  fortune  before  you 
are  forty." 

Listen  to  the  answer :  "  Money  does  not  in- 
terest me." 

We  all  remember  Agassiz's  famous  reply 
to  a  proposition  to  deliver  one  lecture  for  a 
large  fee:  "  I  must  decline,  gentlemen;  I  have 
no  time  to  make  money."  That  was  why  he 
was  Agassiz. 

Quite  as  lofty  ideals  should  inspire  the  work 
of  those  who  make  their  vows  to  the  greatest 
of  all  sciences,  the  science  of  justice,  and  the 
greatest  of  all  arts,  the  art  of  adjusting  the 
rights  of  men.  No  lawyer  can  become  great 
who  does  not  resolve,  at  the  beginning  of  each 
case,  to  make  his  conduct  of  it  a  perfect  piece 
of  work,  regardless  of  compensation. 

John  M.  Butler,  the  partner  of  Senator 
198 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

McDonald,  and  one  of  the  best  lawyers  the 
Central  Western  states  ever  produced,  was  so 
careful  of  pleadings  and  briefs  that  he  would 
not  endure  a  blurred  or  broken  letter,  and  bad 
punctuation  was  a  source  of  real  irritation  to 
him.  Many  times  have  I,  as  his  clerk,  required 
his  printer  to  take  out  an  indistinct  letter.  It 
was  Mr.  Butler's  ideal  to  achieve  perfection 
as  nearly  as  possible. 

The  most  perfect  legal  argument  I  ever 
heard  occupied  less  than  an  hour.  Not  a  word 
was  wasted.  Not 'a  single  digression  weak- 
ened the  force  of  the  reasoning.  Not  a  deci- 
sion was  read  from.  It  was  assumed  that  the 
learned  judges  before  whom  the  cause  was 
being  heard  knew  something  of  the  law  and 
the  decisions  themselves. 

You  see  the  same  thing  in  its  highest  form 
in  Marshall's  decisions.  I  once  advised  a  class 
of  law  students  to  commit  to  memory  half  a 
dozen  of  Marshall's  greatest  opinions.  After 
years  of  reflection  I  think  I  shall  stand  by  that 
advice. 

In  making  an  argument  before  a  court  or 
jury,  remember  that  the  most  important  thing 
is  the  statement  of  your  case.  A  case  properly 
stated  is  a  case  nearly  won.  Beware  of  digres- 
sion.   It  calls  attention  from  your  main  idea. 

199 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

It  is  a  fault,  too,  Avhich  is  well-nigh  universal. 
I  advise  every  young  lawyer,  as  a  practise  in 
accurate  thought,  to  demonstrate  a  theorem  of 
geometry  every  morning. 

There  is  no  such  remorseless  logic  as  that 
of  logaritlims.  It  will  produce  a  habit  of  defi- 
niteness,  directness,  and  concentration  invalu- 
able to  you.  The  young  gallants  of  a  century 
ago  used  to  practise  fencing  for  an  hour  each 
morning.  Why  should  not  j^ou  do  the  same 
thing  in  intellectual  fencing — you,  the  devotee 
of  the  noblest  swordsmanship  known  to  man, 
the  swordsmanship  of  the  law? 

Do  not  waste  too  much  time  quoting  prece- 
dents to  a  coiu-t;  it  produces  weariness  rather 
than  conviction  on  the  part  of  the  judge,  who 
himself  is  a  daily  maker  of  decisions  and 
knows  their  value.  He  knows  the  stifling 
mass  of  precedents,  and  sighs  under  them. 
It  is  rare  that  more  than  two  cases  should  be 
cited  in  oral  argument  on  any  given  point. 
Those  cases  ought  to  be  the  most  controlling 
j^ou  can  find — ^not  necessarily  the  latest.  They 
should  be  cases  decided  upon  reason  rather 
than  upon  authority.  Your  true  judge  likes 
to  syllogize. 

Do  not,  however,  go  into  a  court  without 
having  thoroughly  reviewed  and  mastered  all 

200 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

the  precedents  bearing  on  every  phase  of  your 
proposition.  It  requires  desperate  labor  to  do 
this  and  will  shorten  your  life;  but  such  is  the 
hard  fate  of  the  profession  you  choose,  and 
such  is  the  condition  of  our  absurd  system  of 
multiplying"  reports. 

Do  not  be  what  is  known  as  a  "  case  lawyer  " 
— an  attorney  who  does  not  know  the  law  as  a 
science,  but  merely  looks  up  precedents  and 
texts  concerning  a  particular  case.  You  may 
prevail  in  your  "  lawsuit,"  but  you  will  not  be  a 
lawyer.  Stick  close  to  the  elemental  Black- 
stone.  You  can  never  get  along  without 
Blackstone.  Do  not  read  a  condensed  edition 
of  that  great  commentator;  it  is  like  reading 
expurgated  Shakespeare. 

I  understand  that  one  of  the  Justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court  still  reads  Blackstone  once 
each  year.  This  may  be  a  fable,  but  I  hope  it 
is  not.  You  cannot  do  a  better  thing.  Thirty 
minutes  each  day  will  give  you  Blackstone 
from  cover  to  cover  in  less  than  a  year,  with 
many  holidays.  Few  modern  "  text-books  " 
are  of  permanent  value.  Pomeroy's  "  Equity 
Jurisprudence  "  is  an  exception. 

But,  of  course,  I  cannot  give  here  a  list  of 
those  books  which  should  be  your  daily  food; 
any  really  educated  lawyer  will  mention  them 
14  201 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

to  you.  The  great  mass  of  text-books  are 
nothing  more  than  digests.  But  don't  miss  the 
introduction  to  Stephens'  "  Pleading,"  and 
also  the  introduction  to  Stephens'  "  Digest  of 
the  Law  of  Evidence."  Both  are  classics  and 
give  you  the  reason  and  the  spirit  of  our  law 
in  fascinating  form. 

Let  your  reading  in  the  law  be  mainly  upon 
the  general  principles  of  the  common  law. 
The  study  of  the  civil  law  will  also  be  helpful 
— although  English  jurisprudence  developed 
of  and  by  itself  with  only  moderate  help  from 
the  Romans.  Heading  statutes  is  unprofitable. 
You  should  never  answer  a  question  or  pro- 
ceed in  a  case  on  the  presumption  that  you 
remember  the  statute.  The  rule  of  Sir  Edwin 
Coke  ought  to  be  your  rule. 

"  I  should,"  said  Coke,  "  feel  that  I  ought 
to  be  put  out  of  my  profession  if  I  could  not 
answer  a  question  in  the  common  law  without 
referring  to  the  books.  I  should  feel  that  I 
ought  to  be  put  out  of  my  profession  if  I 
would  answer  a  question  in  the  statute  law 
without  referring  to  the  statute." 

Do  not  confine  yourself  to  law-boohs.  A 
man  who  does  so  is  like  the  farmer  who  persists 
in  planting  the  same  soil  with  the  same  crop; 
exhaustion,   barrenness,   and   unprofitableness 

202 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

are  the  results  in  each  case.  Read  generously, 
widely.  It  is  impossible  for  a  man  to  be  a 
great  lawyer,  so  far  as  the  learning  of  his 
profession  is  concerned,  who  has  not  saturated 
himself  with  the  Bible.  He  may  be  a  great 
practitioner,  but  not  a  great  lawyer.  It  illu- 
minates all  our  law — is  the  source  of  much 
of  it.  There  is  no  more  curious  and  fascinat- 
ing study  than  a  comparison  of  the  ordinances 
of  the  Hebrews  with  what  we  think  our  mod- 
ern statutes. 

Read  deeply  in  science.  Read  widely  the 
great  novelists.  They  are  scientists  of  human 
nature,  and  you  are  dealing  with  human  nature 
in  yoLU*  profession.  Read  profoundly  in  his- 
tory. A  comprehensive  knowledge  of  history 
is  absolutely  indispensable  to  an  understand- 
ing of  our  Constitution.  The  Federalist,  the 
constitutional  debates,  and  all  the  discussions 
that  preceded  and  accompanied  the  adoption 
of  our  organic  law  are  bewilderingly  full  of 
historical  references.  If  you  were  to  study 
every  decision  on  constitutional  questions  made 
by  every  court  in  this  country,  you  could  not 
understand  the  Constitution. 

You  must  go  back  to  the  roots  of  it.  Trace 
out  the  growth  of  our  institutions  in  Holland. 
Work  out  the  modifications  by  these  upon  in- 

203 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

stitutions  adopted  from  England.  Follow  the 
indigenous  development  of  both  of  these  from 
the  old  Crown  Charters,  and  finally  up  to  the 
Constitution  itself. 

Then  take  Bancroft's  "  History  of  the 
United  States  " ;  then  that  great  monument 
of  intellectual  achievement  in  the  realm  of 
historical  criticism,  Von  Holtz's  "  Constitu- 
tional History  of  the  United  States."  Books 
like  Douglass  Campbell's  remarkable  produc- 
tion, Fisher's  convincing  yet  novel  essay,  and 
other  like  serious  and  original  works,  too  nu- 
merous to  properly  mention  here,  are  helpful. 

Nothing  is  more  disgusting  to  an  informed 
court  than  to  hear  a  surface  argument  on  con- 
stitutional law  by  an  advocate  who  thinks 
he  has  mastered  that  tremendous  subject  by 
studying  all  the  decisions  upon  any  given 
point. 

You  will  say  this  is  a  heavy  task  I  am  as- 
signing you.  It  is,  indeed.  But  have  you  not 
chosen  the  profession  of  the  law?  And,  if  so, 
do  you  dare  to  be  less  than  a  lawyer?  How 
dare  you  not  shoulder  your  glorious  burden 
with  patience,  fortitude,  and  determination? 
Do  not  be  as  if  you  were  to  enlist  as  a  soldier, 
and  end  as  a  camp-follower. 

I  am  told  that  the  leader  of  the  American 
204 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

bar  has  a  standing  order  with  his  booksellers 
to  send  him  every  new  book  of  approved  merit 
in  all  the  departments  of  literature.  The  result 
is  that  when  he  comes  before  the  court  his  mind 
is  fresh  and  sparkling  with  clear  ideas  and 
varied  knowledge  poured  into  his  brain  from 
every  mountain-peak  of  inspiration  in  all  the 
world  of  human  thought.  He  brings  to  the 
service  of  his  client  not  only  a  study  of  his 
case  and  an  understanding  of  the  grand  sci- 
ence of  the  law,  but  the  vivifying,  vitalizing 
power  of  all  the  great  minds  in  all  the  realms 
of  intellect. 

If  you  say  you  have  no  time  for  all  this, 
the  answer  is :  If  that  is  true,  you  have  no  time 
to  be  a  great  lawyer.  You  have  the  time,  if 
you  will  use  it.  A  little  less  lingering  at  the 
club,  an  economy  of  hours  here  and  there — this 
will  give  you  time,  and  to  spare.  Of  course  if 
you  would  rather  "  loaf  "  than  be  great,  if  you 
hunger  rather  after  the  flesh-pots  than  the 
lawyer's  wreaths,  this  advice  is  not  for  you. 

Do  not  use  intoxicants.  Even  beware  of 
coffee;  it  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  nerve 
and  brain  stimulants.  The  coffee  habit  is  as 
easily  formed,  and  as  remorseless,  as  the  alco- 
hol habit.  After  a  while,  if  excessively  used, 
it  produces  its  sure  result;  your  faculties  have 

205 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

been  sharpened  by  this  intellectual  emery- 
wheel  until  the  edges  begin  to  crumble.  Your 
mind  becomes  dull;  you  pass  your  hand  wear- 
ily over  your  eyes ;  you  don't  know  what  is  the 
matter  with  you  and  say  so.  Overwork,  over- 
stimulation, and  the  worry  these  produce  are 
what  is  the  matter  with  you. 

There  are  lawyers  in  every  town  who  day  by 
day  and  year  by  year  find  that  they  have  to 
work  harder  to  understand  a  case  or  master 
a  precedent  than  they  did  the  year  before. 
Whereas  formerly  they  could  get  the  point  of 
a  precedent  by  reading  it  over  once,  they  must 
now  read  it  over  four  or  five  times.  You  usu- 
ally find  them  the  victims  of  ceaseless  toil  with- 
out rest,  of  that  destroying  fretfulness  which 
brain-fag  brings,  and  of  some  flogger  of  ex- 
'hausted  nerves,  such  as  coffee  in  excess. 

Do  not  work  late  at  night.  It  is  a  fictitious 
clearness  of  mind  that  comes  to  the  midnight 
toiler.  This  also  grows  into  a  habit.  Conform 
to  Nature.  Go  to  bed  early.  Get  up  early, 
and  do  your  fine  and  original  work  in  the 
morning.  It  will  be  hard  for  you  to  form 
the  habit,  but  after  you  have  done  it  you  will 
be  amazed  at  the  comparatively  immense  nerv- 
ous power  you  possess  in  the  morning  hours. 

In  trying  a  case  before  a  jury,  never  be 
206 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

trivial.  Do  not  bandy  gibes,  no  matter  how 
witty  you  may  know  yourself  to  be  in  repar- 
tee. The  jury,  and  even  the  court,  may  laugh, 
but  they  are  not  impressed,  and  you  have  not 
helped  your  case;  a7id  you  are  there  to  win 
your  case.  As  in  your  argument,  so  in  your 
examination  of  witnesses,  keep  to  the  'point. 

In  arguing  a  case,  no  matter  what  its  nature, 
before  a  court  or  jury,  never  rage  or  rave. 
Get  to  the  point.  Speak  with  great  earnest- 
ness, but  not  with  violence  or  volume  of  sound. 
Remember  that  even  the  most  terrible  emo- 
tions of  the  human  heart  in  their  most  intense 
expression  are  comparatively  quiet.  Be  ear- 
nest. Be  sincere.  Be  the  master  of  your  case, 
and  the  result  must  be  satisfactory. 

It  sometimes  becomes  necessary  for  an  at- 
torney to  assert  his  rights  and  privileges  to  the 
judge  himself.  Do  not  shrink  from  it.  It 
is  your  duty  to  your  client,  your  profession, 
and  the  cause  of  justice.  Never  cringe  to  a 
court.  Never  cringe  to  any  one.  He  will 
despise  you  for  it,  and  properly  so.  Remem- 
ber the  dignity  of  your  profession.  Erskine, 
in  his  first  case,  rebuked  a  prejudiced  and  per- 
haps an  unjust  judge  with  such  vigor  that 
England  rang  with  it. 

Cultivate  lucidity  of  style.  You  will  do  that 
207 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

at  some  risk  at  first.  When  a  young  lawyer 
is  extremely  clear,  he  is  apt  to  be  regarded  as 
not  deep.  Abstruseness  in  expression  is  very 
frequently  regarded  as  an  indication  of  pro- 
fundity. Nevertheless,  persist  in  a  clear  and 
simple  style.  Make  the  statement  of  your  case 
and  the  argument  in  support  of  your  propo- 
sitions so  lucid  and  plain  that  the  judge  or 
jury  will  say:  "Why,  of  course,  that  is  so. 
What  is  the  use  of  the  young  man  stating 
that?  " 

The  study  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  speeches 
will  be  very  helpful.  Two  or  three  of  Roscoe 
Conkling's  arguments  after  he  left  the  Senate 
are  models  of  perspicuity.  Mr.  Potter's  argu- 
ment in  the  legal  tender  cases  is  a  model — it  is 
Euclid  stated  in  terms  of  the  law.  Webster's 
arguments  you  will  study,  of  course.  Black- 
stone  is  one  of  the  clearest  writers  who  ever 
illustrated  the  great  science  to  which  you  and 
I  are  devoted.  Perhaps  as  great  a  logician 
as  ever  lived  was  the  Apostle  Paul;  read  him 
as  a  master  of  logical  utterance. 

Never  be  ponderous;  never  be  florid.  At 
the  same  time,  never  be  dry.  Be  clear;  be 
pointed;  be  luminous.  I  remember  having 
heard  both  sides  of  a  case  argued  before  an 
eminent  Federal  Judge.     One  of  the  lawyers 

208 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

made  a  long,  turgid,  "  profound" — and  musty 
— argument;  proceeding  like  a  draft-horse 
from  mile-post  to  mile-post,  until  the  alert 
mind  of  the  judge  was  almost  frantic  with 
impatience. 

The  lawyer  on  the  other  side  is  one  of  the 
most  eminent  members  of  our  profession.  He 
is  as  lithe  as  a  j)anther,  physically  and  men- 
tally, sharp  as  a  serpent's  tooth,  as  lucid  as  the 
atmosphere  on  a  cloudless  day,  and  yet  as  sug- 
gestive as  a  hickory-wood  fire  in  the  old  home 
fireplace  on  a  wintry  night.  He  paced  the 
floor  in  impatience  while  Mr.  Turgidity  blew 
the  clouds  of  dust  from  precedent  after  pre- 
cedent. 

When  it  came  his  time  to  reply,  he  did  so 
with  a  clearness  and  wealth  of  expression,  an 
appropriateness  of  illustration,  and  a  sim- 
plicity of  reasoning  that  made  one  feel  that 
the  other  man  had  committed  an  impertinence 
in  presenting  his  side  at  all.  Of  course  he  won 
his  case. 

Respect  yourself.  A  man  may  lose  his 
money,  his  reputation — may  even  lose  every- 
thing; and  yet  he  has  not  lost  everything  if 
he  retains  his  self-respect.  Be  a  gentleman  at 
the  outset  of  your  career  and  forever.  Do  not 
move  among  men  like  a  beggar  for  favors. 

209 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

Do  not  wear  poor  clothes.     Apparel  yourself 
like  a  gentleman. 

No  client  worth  having  respects  you  for  ad- 
vertising your  poverty.  Do  not  fear  that 
your  community  will  not  know  that  you  are 
poor.  They  know  it,  and  sympathize  with 
you.  But  every  one  of  our  race  likes  to  see 
a  man  "  game."  Therefore,  dress  well.  Bear 
yourself  like  a  man  who  has  prosperous  poten- 
tialities if  not  prosperous  assets. 

Keep  your  office  in  as  perfect  condition  as 
yourself.  Remember  that  it  is  your  workshop. 
Put  all  j^our  extra  money  into  books.  There 
is  no  adornment  of  an  office  equal  to  a  library, 
just  as  there  is  no  adornment  of  a  mechanic's 
shop  equal  to  his  tools.  You  know  what  you 
think  of  a  doctor  when  you  find  his  office 
equipped  with  the  latest  appliances. 

Do  not  permit  your  office  to  be  a  loafing 
place,  even  for  your  fellow  lawyers.  You  can- 
not afford  to  cultivate  professional  courtesy 
at  the  expense  of  the  discipline  of  your  office. 
It  is  nothing  to  your  client  that  your  friends 
find  your  society  so  charming  that  they  seek 
the  felicity  of  your  conversation  even  in  your 
office.  Or,  rather,  it  is  something  to  your  cli- 
ent— he  wants  his  case  won  and  he  thinks  that 
will  take  all  your  time.    And  so  it  will. 

210 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

Be  very  careful  of  the  places  you  frequent. 
Remember  that  Pericles  was  never  seen  except 
upon  the  street  leading  to  the  Senate  House. 
Don't  imitate  anybody — be  yourself.  Still,  if 
you  must  have  the  stimulus  of  imitation,  pick 
out  a  man  like  Pericles  for  your  model. 

Depend  upon  yoiu'self;  do  not  call  into 
council  another  attorney.  This  is  a  point  on 
which  most  lawyers  will  disagree  with  me. 
Nevertheless,  if  you  are  not  competent  to 
handle  your  case,  you  have  done  wrong  to 
open  an  independent  office.  If  you  call  in 
another  attorney,  every  probability  is  that  j^ou 
will  suggest  all  the  solutions  yourself  and  in 
reality  win  the  case;  but  your  old  and  distin- 
guished associate  will  get  all  the  credit.  But 
you  need  all  the  credit  for  work  which  you 
really  do. 

See  well  to  your  evidence  before  you  go  into 
the  trial  of  a  cause.  Be  very  cautious  on  cross- 
examination.  It  is  the  most  powerful  but  most 
delicate  and  dangerous  instrument  known  to 
the  surgery  of  the  law.  Do  not  bluster,  "  bull- 
doze," or  browbeat  a  witness;  there  is  nothing 
in  it.  You  only  make  the  jury  sympathize 
with  the  person  abused.  Bemember  that  an 
American  loves  nothing  so  much  as  fair  play. 
When  on  a  jury,  he  is  apt  to  regard  you  and 

211 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

the  witness  as  adversaries,  you  the  stronger  and 
with  immense  advantage. 

Ask  few  questions  on  cross-examination. 
Employ  the  Socratic  method  always.  Ask 
only  those  questions  the  logical  conclusion  of 
which  is  irresistible,  and  stoi)  there.  Don't 
press  the  conclusion  on  the  witness.  It  is  your 
province  to  show  that  in  your  argument. 

A  timid  witness,  whom  you  know  to  be 
telling  the  truth,  may  often  be  confused  by 
cross-examination  and  made  to  make  a  false 
statement;  but  this  you  have  no  right,  as  an 
honorable  attorney,  to  make  him  do.  A  just 
judge  ought  to  stop  you  if  you  try  it.  To 
confuse  a  witness  whom  you  know  to  be  tell- 
ing the  truth  is  not  skill;  it  is  a  trick,  and  a 
very  miserable  trick,  whose  performance  re- 
quires neither  real  ability  nor  learning. 

Think  what  a  tremendous  intellectual  ef- 
fort the  properly  conducted  lawsuit  is.  You 
must  know  your  case;  you  must  know  your 
evidence;  you  must  know  each  witness  as  a 
person  and  each  item  of  his  testimony;  you 
must  know  the  law  applicable  to  your  general 
proposition,  and  the  general  law  upon  its 
various  ramifications;  you  must  study  the  wit- 
nesses of  the  other  side;  and,  almost  more  im- 
portant than  any  of  these,  you  must  study  that 

212 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

wonderful  combination  of  intellect,  prejudice, 
and  passion  called  the  jury. 

When  the  time  comes  for  you  to  address 
that  jury  you  must  thoroughly  understand 
each  man.  This  is  not  that  you  may  influence 
him,  or  "  play  upon  "  him,  or  resort  to  any  of 
the  devices  of  the  baser  sort.  It  is  that  you  may 
know  how  best  to  get  the  truth  of  your  case 
to  him.  How  to  get  your  theory,  your  cause, 
before  each  juror  should  be  your  only  concern. 

Never  try  to  be  "  eloquent."  Never  be 
funny.  Wit  may  cause  laughter,  it  never  pro- 
duces conviction.  A  joke  may  divert,  it  never 
persuades.  It  is  unnecessary  even  to  arouse  a 
jury's  sympathies.  Forget  every  tiling  except 
making  the  juror  understand  your  case.  The 
result  will  be  that  he  will  understand  your  case, 
and  if  he  understands  it,  and  it  is  a  case  you 
ought  to  win,  his  understanding  of  it  means 
that  you  will  win  it. 

Take  at  least  one  excellent  legal  periodical. 
There  are  four  or  five  "  law  "  magazines  pub- 
lished in  America,  some  of  them  very  good 
indeed.  Do  not  pay  any  attention  to  the 
digests  of  cases  with  which  some  of  these 
periodicals  burden  their  pages,  except  to  see  if 
there  is  a  recent  decision  on  some  case  you  are 
trying.    You  cannot  remember  them,  and  the 

213 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

effort  to  do  so  will  only  confuse.  But  you 
will  usually  find  in  each  number  one  serious 
and  profitable  article,  and  possibly  more,  on 
matters  of  real  interest  to  the  profession. 
Read  such  articles  very  carefully. 

The  methods  of  scientific  scholarship  are 
now  invading  the  law,  and  many  of  these  legal 
essays  are  superb  pieces  of  work.  Now  and 
then  you  will  find  a  monograph  of  monu- 
mental worth.  Such  is  the  remarkable  intro- 
duction to  Stephens'  admirable  work  on 
"  Pleading,"  to  which  I  have  already  called 
your  attention. 

That  author's  demonstration  of  the  value  of 
forms,  and  his  comparison  of  the  Roman  civil 
law  with  the  English  common  law,  is  the  most 
carefully  thought  out  and  learned  piece  of 
legal  writing  I  can  think  of  at  this  moment. 
It  is  as  great  as  it  is  brief. 

Take  part  in  politics.  I  know  that  it  is  an 
ordinary  saying  that  a  lawyer  should  leave 
politics  alone.  It  is  not  true.  What  right 
have  you,  a  member  of  the  great  profession 
which,  more  than  all  other  forces  combined, 
has  established  and  defended  liberty,  to  with- 
draw yourself  from  active  participation  in  the 
sacred  function  of  self-government?  You 
have  no  such  right. 

214 


THE   YOUNG  LAWYER 

Of  course  you  should  not  make  politics  your 
profession.  That  is  fatal  to  your  success  in 
the  profession  of  the  law.  It  is  one  profession 
or  the  other,  one  love  or  the  other.  But  take 
part  in  your  party's  primaries.  Make  yourself 
so  wise  and  useful  that  you  will  be  an  indis- 
pensable party  counselor.  By  all  means  be  a 
"  factor  "  in  your  party. 

As  you  value  life  itself,  do  not  permit  your- 
self ever  to  be  made  a  lobbyist  under  the  guise 
of  general  employment  by  a  corporation  or 
any  other  interest  concerned  in  legislation.  It 
is  no  doubt  proper  for  a  lawyer  to  make  a  legal 
argument  before  a  legislative  committee  in 
behalf  of  clients.  Nevertheless,  I  advise  you 
not  to  do  it.  It  is  the  first  step  toward  the 
disreputable  form  of  lobbying.  There  is,  of 
course,  perfectly  proper  and  even  necessary 
lobbying.  But  then  you  are  a  lawyer,  are  you 
not? 

We  all  know  instances  of  brilliant  lawyers 
and  powerful  men  who  have  thus  sold  their 
birthrights  for  messes  of  pottage.  No  matter 
how  much  you  need  money,  never  accept  a  re- 
tainer or  fee  of  any  kind  from  any  corpora- 
tion, person,  or  "  interest "  which  really  does 
not  want  your  active  service,  but  in  that  man- 
ner is  purchasing  your  silence. 

215 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

Accept  no  employment  except  real,  genuine 
employment  for  actual,  tangible,  and  honest 
work.  Money  obtained  from  any  other  kind 
of  employment  is  a  loss  to  you  in  every  way, 
even  financially. 

Think  daily  of  the  nobility  and  dignity  of 
your  profession.  Remember  the  great  men 
that  have  adorned  it  and  established  the  pillars 
of  its  glory.  They  were  gentlemen,  men  of 
learning,  of  breeding,  of  honor  as  delicate  as 
a  woman's  blush.  Be  you  such,  or  leave  the 
profession. 

Keep  in  mind  the  lords  of  the  bar.  Resolve 
each  morning  when  you  awake  that,  to  the 
utmost  of  your  efforts,  you  will  strive  to  be 
one  of  them — in  learning  full  and  thorough, 
in  courtesy  delicate,  in  courage  fearless,  in 
character  spotless,  in  all  things  and  at  all  sea- 
sons the  true  knight  of  Justice. 

Finally,  preserve  your  health,  preserve  your 
health,  preserve  your  health.  Work,  work, 
work.  Cling  to  the  loftiest  ideals  of  your 
profession  which  your  mind  can  conceive.  Do 
these;  keep  up  your  nerve;  never  despair;  and 
success  is  certain,  distinction  probable,  and 
greatness  possible,  according  to  your  natural 
abilities. 


216 


VI 

PUBLIC   SPEAKING 

"  And  the  common  people  heard  him 
gladly,"  for  "  he  taught  them  as  one  having 
authority."  These  sentences  reveal  the  very 
heart  of  effective  speaking.  Considered  from 
the  human  view-point  alone,  the  Son  of  Mary 
was  the  prince  of  speakers.  He  alone  has  de- 
livered a  perfect  address — the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount. 

The  two  other  speeches  that  approach  it 
are  Paul's  appeal  to  the  Athenians  on  Mars 
Hill,  and  the  speech  of  Abraham  Lincoln  at 
Gettysburg.  These  have  no  tricks,  no  devices, 
no  tinsel  gilt.  They  do  not  attempt  to  "  split 
the  ears  of  the  groundlings,"  and  yet  they  are 
addressed  to  the  commonest  of  the  world's 
common  people. 

Imagination,  reason,  and  that  peculiar  hu- 
man quality  in  speech  which  defies  analysis  as 
much  as  the  perfume  of  the  rose,  but  which 
touches  the  heart  and  reaches  the  mind,  are 
blended  in  each  of  these  utterances  in  perfect 
proportion. 

15  217 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

But,  above  all,  each  of  these  model  speeches 
which  the  world  has  thus  far  produced  teaches. 
They  instruct.  And,  in  doing  this,  they  as- 
sert. The  men  who  spoke  them  did  not  weak- 
en them  by  suggesting  a  doubt  of  what  they 
said.     This  is  common  to  all  great  speeches. 

Not  one  immortal  utterance  can  be  produced 
which  contains  such  expressions  as,  "I  may  be 
wrong,"  or,  "  In  my  humble  opinion,"  or,  "  In 
my  judgment."  The  great  speakers,  in  their 
highest  moments,  have  always  been  so  charged 
with  aggressive  conviction  that  they  have  an- 
nounced their  conclusions  as  ultimate  truths. 
They  have  spoken  as  persons  "  having  author- 
ity," and  therefore  "  the  common  people  have 
heard  them  gladly." 

All  of  this  means  that  the  two  indispensable 
requisites  of  speaking  are,  first,  to  have  some- 
thing to  say,  and,  second,  to  say  it  as  though 
you  mean  it.  Of  course  one  cannot  have 
something  really  to  say — a  lesson  to  teach,  a 
message  to  deliver — every  fifteen  minutes. 
Very  well,  then ;  until  one  does  have  something 
to  say,  let  one  hold  one's  peace. 

Carlyle's  idea  is  correct.  He  thought  that 
no  man  has  the  right  to  speak  until  what  he 
has  to  say  is  so  ripe  with  meaning,  and  the 
season  for  his  saying  it  is  so  compelling,  that 

218 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

what  he  says  will  result  in  a  deed — a  thing 
accomplished  now  or  afterwhile.  In  the  pro- 
phetic old  Scotchman's  iron  philosophy  there 
was  no  room  for  anything  but  deeds. 

If  such  instruction  is  needed;  if  a  great 
movement  requires  the  forming  and  construc- 
tive word  to  interpret  it  and  give  it  direction; 
if  a  movement  in  a  ^vi'ong  direction  needs  halt- 
ing and  turning  to  its  proper  course ;  if  a  cause 
needs  pleading;  if  a  law  needs  interpretation; 
if  anything  really  7ieeds  to  be  said — the  occa- 
sion for  the  orator,  in  the  large  sense  of  that 
word,  has  arrived.  Therefore  when  he  speaks 
"  the  common  people  will  hear  him  gladly  " ; 
they  will  hear  him  because  he  teaches,  and  does 
it  "as  one  having  authority." 

Whenever  a  speaker  fails  to  make  his 
audience  forget  voice,  gesture,  and  even  the 
speaker  himself ;  whenever  he  fails  to  make  the 
listeners  conscious  only  of  the  living  truth  he 
utters,  he  has  failed  in  his  speech  itself,  which 
then  has  no  other  reason  for  having  been  de- 
livered than  a  play  or  any  other  form  of 
entertainment. 

Very  few  of  the  great  orators  have  had 
loud  voices,  or,  if  they  did  have  them,  they  did 
not  employ  them.  I  am  told  that  Wendell 
Phillips    always    spoke    in    a    conversational 

219 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

tone,  and  yet  he  was  able  to  make  an  audi- 
ence of  many  thousands  hear  distinctly;  and 
Phillips  was  one  of  the  greatest  speakers 
America  has  produced. 

It  is  probable  that  no  man  ever  lived  who 
had  a  more  sensuous  effect  upon  his  hearers 
than  Ingersoll.  In  a  literal  and  a  physical 
sense  he  charmed  them.  I  never  heard  him 
talk  in  a  loud  voice.  There  was  no  "  bell-like  " 
quality.    It  was  not  an  "  organ-like  "  voice. 

The  greatest  feat  of  modern  speech,  in  its 
immediate  effect,  was  Henry  Ward  Beecher's 
speech  to  the  Liverpool  mob.  A  gentleman 
who  heard  that  speech  told  me  that,  notwith- 
standing the  pandemonium  that  reigned 
around  him,  Beecher  did  not  shout,  nor  speak 
at  the  top  of  his  voice,  a  single  time  during 
that  terrible  four  hours. 

It  is  true  that  ^schines  spoke  of  Demos- 
thenes' delivery  of  his  "  Oration  on  the 
Crown "  as  having  the  ferocity  of  a  wild 
beast.  I  do  not  see  how  that  can  be,  however, 
because  Demosthenes  selected  Iseeus  as  his 
teacher  for  the  reason  that  Isseus  was  "  busi- 
ness-like "  in  method. 

This,  however,  is  common  to  the  voices  of 
nearly  all  great  speakers ;  they  have  a  peculiar 
power  of  penetration  that  carries  them  much 

220 


PUBLIC   SPEAKING 

farther  than  the  shout  and  halloo  of  the  loudest- 
voiced  person.  They  have,  too,  a  singularly 
touching  and  tender  quality,  which,  in  a  sen- 
suous way,  captivates  and  holds  the  hearers. 
James  Whitcomb  Riley  has  this  quality  in  his 
voice  when  reciting.  Edwin  Booth  had  it. 
All  great  actors  have  it.  Every  true  orator 
has  it.  It  touches  you  strangely,  thrills  you, 
affects  you  much  as  music  does. 

It  is  a  remarkable  thing  that  there  is  neither 
wit  nor  humor  in  any  of  the  immortal  speeches 
that  have  fallen  from  the  lips  of  man.  To 
find  a  joke  in  Webster  would  be  an  offense. 
The  only  things  which  Ingersoll  wrote  that 
will  live  are  his  oration  at  his  brother's  grave 
and  his  famous  "  The  Past  Rises  before  Me 
like  a  Dream."  But  in  neither  of  these  pro- 
ductions of  this  genius  of  jesters  is  there  a 
single  trace  of  wit. 

There  is  not  a  funny  sally  in  all  Burke's 
speeches.  Lincoln's  Gettysburg  address,  his 
first  and  second  inaugurals,  his  speech  begin- 
ning the  Douglas  campaign,  and  his  Cooper 
Union  address  in  New  York,  are  perhaps  the 
only  utterances  of  his  that  will  endure. 

Yet  this  greatest  of  story-tellers  since  iEsop 
did  not  deface  one  of  these  great  deliverances 
with  story  or  any  form  of  humor. 

221 


i 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

The  reason  for  this  is  found  in  the  whole 
tendency  of  human  thought  and  feehng — in 
the  whole  melancholy  history  of  the  race — 
where  tears  and  grief,  the  hard  seriousness  of 
life  and  the  terrible  and  speedy  certainty  of  our 
common  fate  of  suffering  and  of  death,  make 
somber  the  master-cord  of  existence.  And  the 
great  orator  must  reflect  the  deeper  soul  of  his 
hearers. 

So  all  the  immortal  things  are  serious,  even 
sad. 

It  is  so  with  speech — I  mean  the  speech  that 
affects  the  convictions  and  understanding  of 
men.  I  am  excluding  now  that  form  of  speech" 
which  belongs  to  the  same  class,  though  not  of* 
so  high  an  order,  as  the  theatrical  exhibition. 

Excepting  only  Lincoln,  the  Middle  West 
has  produced  no  greater  man  than  Oliver  P. 
Morton;  and  few  men  in  our  history  have  had 
greater  power  upon  an  audience  both  in 
the  immediate  and  permanent  effect  of  his 
speeches  than  did  Indiana's  great  Senator.  It 
is  related  of  him  that  while  a  very  young  man 
he  made  a  speech  so  rich  in  humor  and  scin- 
tillant  of  wit  that  it  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  whole  commonwealth. 

Morton,  however,  was  not  pleased  or  flat- 
tered.    He    was    alarmed.     He    feared    that 

222  :| 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

what  he  knew  to  be  his  weighty  abihties  would 
be  held  lightly  by  his  fellow  citizens.  From 
that  time  on  this  Cromwell  of  the  forum  never 
"  told  a  story  "  or  attempted  to  amuse  his  hear- 
ers in  any  way. 

Of  course,  if  your  mental  armory  is  natur- 
ally heavily  stocked  with  the  various  forms  of 
fun,  you  are  not  to  be  blamed  for  employing 
the  weapons  with  which  Nature  has  equipped 
you  and  which  Nature  has  peculiarly  fitted  you 
to  use — although  JMorton  deliberately  let  them 
rust.  But,  generally  speaking,  it  is  a  distinct 
descent  from  the  high  plane  of  your  address 
to  excite  the  laughter  of  your  audience.  When 
you  do  so,  you  confess  that  you  are  not  able 
to  hold  the  attention  of  your  hearers  by  the 
sustained  and  unbroken  strength  of  your  argu- 
ment. You  admit  that  you  are  either  so  dull 
in  your  thought  or  indifferent  in  your  convic- 
tions that  you  know  you  are  wearying  your 
auditors  and  must  rest  them  by  some  mental 
diversion. 

Where  there  is  an  earnestness  of  thought 
(and  earnestness  is  only  another  name  for  seri- 
ousness) there  will  always  be  the  same  quality 
in  manner — an  impressiveness  in  bearing  and 
delivery.  This  is  inconsistent  with  merriment 
of  dehvery,  which  robs  speech  of  a  certain 

223 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

weight  and  intrinsic  worth.  It  is  also  incon- 
sistent with  the  voice  of  storm  and  the  hurricane 
manner. 

And  men  in  deadly  earnest  do  not  talk 
loudly.  It  has  been  my  fortune  to  see  men 
angry  and  aroused  to  the  point  of  killing ;  they 
were  intense,  but  quiet.  I  have  also  seen  that 
bravado  and  drunken  boisterousness  which 
thought  it  imitated,  and  meant  to  imitate, 
genuine  rage;  it  was  always  strident  and  vio- 
lent, never  dangerous,  never  sincere.  The 
same  thing  is  true  in  speech. 

There  have  onty  been  two  or  three  roarers 
in  effective  oratory — INIirabeau,  by  all  ac- 
counts (though  anjT^thing  can  be  forgiven  a 
man  who  can  make  such  speeches  as  the  great 
Frenchman  made),  and  Demosthenes,  if  JEtS- 
chines  is  to  be  believed,  which  I  think  he  is  not 
to  be  in  this  particular.  He  was  onh^  excusing 
his  own  defeat,  and  he  had  to  attribute  it  to 
delivery.  (I  think  any  unprejudiced  mind 
will  agree  that  ^^schines  made  the  better 
argument. )  All  the  other  great  speakers  have, 
even  in  their  most  intense  passages,  and  in 
situations  where  life  and  death  were  involved, 
been  comparatively  quiet  so  far  as  mere  vol- 
ume of  sound  is  concerned. 

I  remember,  as  if  it  were  yesterday,  the  first 
224 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

great  speaker  I  ever  heard.  It  was  Robert  G. 
Ingersoll,  delivering  a  lecture  in  Des  Moines, 
Iowa,  in  1884.  He  had  an  audience  which 
would  have  inspired  eloquence  in  almost  any 
breast.  He  came  on  the  stage  alone,  and  was 
very  carefully,  even  elegantly  attired,  to  the 
smallest  item  of  his  grooming. 

His  address  was  in  manuscript,  and  imper- 
fectly committed  to  memory.  He  laid  it  down 
on  a  little  table  at  the  back  of  the  stage 
(returning  to  it  occasionally  to  refresh  his 
memorj^ ) ,  and  then,  in  a  very  natural  and  mat- 
ter-of-fact way,  walked  to  the  footlights,  and, 
looking  the  audience  frankly  in  the  eyes, 
began  without  an  instant's  hesitation,  and  in 
a  voice  precisely  as  if  he  were  talking  to  a 
friend. 

But  he  was  as  dramatic  at  his  climaxes  as 
Edwin  Booth  ever  was  in  Hamlet.  His  face 
paled,  or  seemed  to  pale;  his  hands  clinched 
with  a  desperate  energy,  and  the  whole  atti- 
tude of  the  man  was  that  of  one  in  awful 
wrath.  Yet  his  voice  was  not  raised  above  the 
common  current  of  the  evening's  address — if 
anything,  it  was  lower.  While  the  mature 
mind  cannot  endure  Ingersoll's  rhetoric,  it 
must  be  acknowledged  that  his  manner  of 
delivery    (except  when  his  levity  made  him 

225 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

coarse)  was  nearly  equal  to  that  of  Wendell 
Phillips.  Still,  in  his  intense  passages  Inger- 
soll  was  almost  fiercely  earnest.  And  Plu- 
tarch tells  us  that  Cicero's  friends  feared  he 
would  kill  himself  by  bursting  a  blood-vessel, 
with  such  intense  energy  did  he  speak. 

Both  of  these  men  had  that  instinctive  taste 
of  the  great  speaker  which  Shakespeare  has 
described  better  than  any  one  else  in  literature, 
when  he  makes  Hamlet  tell  the  players  not  to 
"  mouth  it,  as  man}''  of  your  players  do,  I  had 
as  lief  the  town-crier  spoke  my  lines.  Nor  do 
not  saw  the  air  too  much — your  hand  thus: 
but  use  all  gently:  for  in  the  very  torrent, 
tempest,  and  (as  I  may  say)  the  whirlwind 
of  passion,  you  must  acquire  and  beget  a 
temperance,  that  may  give  it  smoothness.  O, 
it  offends  me  to  the  soul  to  hear  a  robus- 
tious, periwig  pated  fellow  tear  a  passion  to 
tatters,  to  very  rags,  to  split  the  ears  of  the 
groundlings ;  who,  for  the  most  part,  are  capa- 
ble of  nothing  but  inexplicable  dumb  shows 
and  noise :  I  could  have  such  a  fellow  whipped 
for  o'erdoing  Termagant;  it  out-herods  Her- 
od: pray  you,  avoid  it." 

When  I  was  a  very  young  boy  I  saw  a  fist- 
fight  which  impressed  me  as  powerfully  as  any 
lesson  I  ever  learned  at  school.     An  overtall 

226 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

and  powerful  man,  about  forty  years  old,  had 
become  angry  at  a  medium-sized  but  very  com- 
pact man  of  about  the  same  age.  As  his  pas- 
sion increased  his  violence  grew,  until  finally 
he  was  shouting  his  denunciations.  The  little 
man  stood  quietly  alert. 

Finally,  with  a  great  volume  of  sound,  the 
big  man  rushed  upon  the  little  one  with  arms 
swinging  in  the  air,  and  I  looked  with  interest 
and  curiosity  to  see  the  smaller  man  either  run 
or  be  demolished.  He  did  neither.  His  fists 
were  raised  quickly  but  intensely  before  him, 
and  when  the  big  man  was  almost  upon  him, 
it  seemed  to  me  that  his  right  hand  did  not 
shoot  out  farther  than  ten  or  twelve  inches; 
but  it  did  shoot  out,  and  the  result  was  as  if 
the  big  man  had  been  shot,  sure  enough. 

He  fell  like  a  slaughtered  ox,  but  rose 
and  came  on  again,  only  again  to  be  knocked 
down.  This  continued  for  three  or  four  times, 
for  the  giant  was  "  game  " ;  but  finally  he  was 
"  thrashed  to  a  standstill,"  as  the  expression 
has  it. 

It  was  a  great  lesson  in  life  and  a  great 
lesson  in  speaking,  which  is  only  a  phase  of 
life.  The  victor  came  to  the  point.  He  did 
not  dissipate  his  energies.  It  is  so  in  the  man- 
ner of  speaking.    The  greatest  contrast  to  the 

227 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WOBLD 

perfect  method  of  Ingersoll  which  I  ever  be- 
held in  a  man  of  equal  eminence  was  in  the 
delivery  of  a  lecture  by  Joseph  Cook. 

He  came  on  the  stage  with  ostentatious  im- 
pressiveness.  He  sat  some  time  before  he  was 
introduced,  seeming  vast  and  overpowering — 
a  very  Matterhorn  of  consequence.  After 
introduction  he  stood  with  one  hand  thrust  in 
the  breast  of  his  tightly  buttoned  frock  coat, 
and  looked  tremendously  all  over  the  audience 
for  perhaps  an  entire  minute.  Everybody  was 
awed ;  he  looked  so  great.  We  all  said  to  our- 
selves, "  What  a  mighty  man  this  is!  " 

And  when  that  effect  had  been  produced 
upon  us,  the  first  and  great  point  of  effec- 
tiveness had  been  destroyed:  the  speaker  had 
made  us  think  about  himself,  his  manner,  his 
appearance,  his  personality.  All  the  evening 
we  had  to  wade  through  that  slough,  trying  to 
follow  his  thought.  And  this  reminds  me  of 
a  saying  of  one  of  the  most  astute  politicians 
and  most  capable  public  men  of  recent  de- 
velopment : 

"  The  surest  sign  that  a  man  is  not  great 
is  that  he  strives  to  look  great." 

I  think  that  the  best  speech  I  ever  heard 
for  obedience  to  the  rules  of  art  was  an  ad- 
dress of  about  ten  minutes  by  a  young  Salva- 

228 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

tion  Army  officer  on  the  streets  of  Chicago.  I 
listened  with  amazement.  He  was  perhaps 
twenty-three  years  of  age,  with  dehcate,  clear- 
cut  features,  sensitive  mouth,  and  marvelously 
intelligent  eyes.  I  was  just  passing  the  group 
as  he  stepped  into  the  circle  that  always  sur- 
rounds these  nois}''  but  sincere  enthusiasts. 

He  took  off  his  cap,  and  in  a  low,  perfectly 
natural,  and  very  sweet  voice,  speaking  exactly 
as  though  he  were  having  a  conversation  with 
his  most  confidential  friend,  he  began :  "  You 
will  admit,  my  friends,  that  human  happiness 
is  the  problem  of  human  life."  And  from  this 
striking  sentence  he  went  on  to  another  equally 
moving,  showing,  of  course,  that  happiness 
could  not  be  secui'ed  by  traveling  any  of  the 
usual  roads,  but  only  the  straight  and  narrow 
path  which  the  Master  has  marked  out. 

It  was  as  simple  as  it  was  sincere.  And  it 
was  as  conversational  as  it  was  quiet.  Before 
he  had  finished,  his  audience  had  gathered  into 
itself  every  pedestrian  who  passed  during  his 
discourse — business  man,  professional  man, 
working  man,  or  what  not. 

The  fight  above  described  suggests  the  key 
to  the  matter  as  well  as  the  manner  of  speak- 
ing. The  American  audience  properly  de- 
mands, above  everything  else,  that  the  speaker 

229 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

get  to  the  point.  Our  lives  are  so  rapid;  the 
telephone,  telegraph,  and  all  the  instantane- 
ous agencies  of  our  neurotically  swift  civiliza- 
tion have  made  us  so  quick  in  seeing  through 
propositions;  a  hundred  years  of  universal 
education  have  produced  a  mentality  so  electric 
in  its  rapidity,  that  effective  oratory  has  been 
revolutionized  within  a  decade. 

Burke  would  not  be  tolerated  now.  It  is 
doubtful,  even,  if  Webster  would.  The  public 
has  already  tired  of  the  lilt  of  Ingersoll's 
redundant  rhetoric,  pleasing  as  was  its  music. 
The  effective  speech  to-day  is  a  statement  of 
conclusions. 

The  listeners,  with  a  celerity  inconceivable, 
sum  up  the  argument  on  either  side  of  the 
proposition  you  announce,  and  accept  or  re- 
ject it  by  a  process  of  unconscious  mental 
cerebration. 

The  most  successful  speech  of  to-day  would 
be  one  of  Emerson's  essays  rearranged  in 
logical  order — if  such  a  thing  were  possible. 
Therefore,  in  matter,  the  statement  is  the  form 
of  address  now  most  effective.  Recall  the 
opinion  of  Senator  McDonald — the  greatest 
natural  lawyer  I  ever  knew — that  the  best 
argument  in  a  case  always  is  the  statement  of 
the  case. 

230 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

In  form,  the  sentences  should  be  short;  in 
language,  the  words  should  be  as  largely  as 
possible  Anglo-Saxon.  These  are  the  words 
of  the  people  you  address,  therefore  they  are 
most  influential  with  them.  Also,  therefore, 
your  best  method  of  getting  Anglo-Saxon  is 
to  mingle  with  and  talk  with  the  common  peo- 
ple. The  next  best  method  is  to  read  the  Bible, 
the  King  James  translation  of  which  is  un- 
doubtedly the  purest  fountain  of  English  that 
flows  in  all  the  world  of  our  literature. 

What  nonsense  the  repeated  statement  that 
public  speaking  has  had  its  day,  that  the  news- 
paper has  taken  its  place,  and  all  the  rest  of 
that  kind  of  talk.  Public  speaking  will  never 
decline  until  men  cease  to  have  ears  to  hear. 
How  hard  it  is  to  read  a  speech;  how  delight- 
ful to  listen! 

Speaking  is  Nature's  choicest  method  of 
instruction. 

It  begins  with  mother  to  child;  it  continues 
with  teacher  to  pupil;  it  continues  still  in 
lecturer  or  professor  to  his  student  (for  the 
universities  are  all  going  back  to  the  old  oral 
method  of  instruction)  ;  and  it  still  continues 
in  all  the  forms  of  effective  human  commu- 
nication. 

The  newspapers  are  a  marvelous  influence, 
231 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

but  they  are  not  everything,  and  they  do  not 
supply  everything.  For  example,  it  is  com- 
monly supposed  that  they,  absolutely  and  ex- 
clusively, mold  and  control  public  opinion. 
But  they  do  not.  When  all  has  been  said,  the 
most  powerful  public  opinion,  after  all,  is  that 
from-mouth-to-mouth  public  opinion — that 
living,  moving  opinion — which  spreads  from 
neighbor  to  neighbor,  and  has  fused  into  it  the 
vitality  of  the  personality  of  nearly  every  man 
• — yes,  and  woman;  don't  forget  that — in  the 
whole  community. 

And  the  philosophy  which  miderlies  this  is 
what  makes  public  speaking  immortal.  The 
Master  understood  this  very  well,  and  that  is 
why  He  chose  to  speak  by  word  of  mouth 
rather  than  by  writing  epistles.  The  Saviour 
never  wrote  a  single  epistle — no,  not  even  a 
single  word.    He  spoke  His  message. 

Think  of  a  gospel  announced  to  the  world 
in  cold  type!  Absurd,  is  it  not?  It  may  be 
repeated  in  that  form,  but  its  initial  power 
must  come  from  the  spoken  word  and  vital 
personality  of  its  author.  But  Christ's  ad- 
dresses were  not  "  extemporaneous."  All  His 
life  He  had  been  preparing  His  few  sermons 
— lessons. 

The  great  speakers  to  whom  I  have  listened 
232 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

have  confirmed  certain  conclusions  upon  the 
subject  of  speaking  at  which  I  arrived  while 
in  college.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  college 
method  of  speaking  was  wrong  because  it  was 
irrational — that  the  studied  gestures,  the  "  cul- 
tivated "  voice,  the  staccato  impressiveness, 
were  all  artificial  devices  to  attract  the  atten- 
tion of  an  audience  to  these  things,  instead  of 
to  the  thought  of  the  address. 

Analysis  of  the  problem  convinced  me  that 
an  audience  is  only  a  larger  person — a  great 
collective  individuality — and  therefore  that 
whatever,  in  manner  and  matter,  will  please, 
persuade,  and  convince  a  person,  will  have  the 
same  effect  upon  an  audience.  Hence  .one 
readily  deduces  that  a  simple,  quiet,  but  direct, 
earnest  address;  a  straightforward,  unartifi- 
cial  honest  manner,  without  tricks  of  oratory, 
is  the  most  effective  method  of  lodging  truth 
in  the  minds  of  one's  hearers. 

Any  affectation,  any  mannerism,  detracts 
from  the  thought  because  it  calls  the  attention 
of  the  listener  to  the  mannerism  or  affectation, 
when  his  whole  attention  should  be  monopo- 
lized by  the  thought.  Read  Herbert  Spencer 
on  the  "  Philosophy  of  Style,"  and  apply  his 
reasoning  to  the  delivery  of  an  address,  and 
you  have  the  rationale  of  the  art  of  speaking, 
16  233. 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

as  well  as  of  speech,  put  with  that  wonderful 
thinker's  unerringness. 

The  method  commonly  employed  in  prepar- 
ing speeches  is  incorrect.  That  method  is,  to 
read  all  the  books  one  can  get  on  the  subject, 
take  all  the  opinions  that  can  be  procured, 
make  exhaustive  notes,  and  then  write  the 
speech. 

Such  a  speech  is  nothing  but  a  compilation. 
It  is  merely  an  arrangement  of  second-hand 
thoughts  and  observations  and  of  other  peo- 
ple's ideas.  It  never  has  the  power  of  living 
and  original  thinking. 

The  true  way  is  to  take  the  elements  of  the 
problem  in  hand,  and,  without  consulting  a 
book  or  an  opinion,  reason  out  from  these  very 
elements  of  the  problem  itself  your  solution 
of  it,  and  then  prepare  your  speech. 

After  this,  read,  read,  read — read  com- 
prehensively, omnivorously,  in  order  to  see 
whether  your  solution  was  not  exploded  a  hun- 
dred years  ago — aye,  a  thousand — and,  if  it 
was  not,  to  fortify  and  make  accurate  your  own 
thought.  Read  Matthew  Arnold  on  "  Litera- 
ture and  Dogma,"  and  you  will  discover  why 
it  is  necessarj?^  for  you  to  read  exhaustively  on 
any  subject  about  which  you  would  think  or 
write  or  speak. 

234 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

But,  as  you  value  your  independence  of 
mind — yes,  even  your  vigor  of  mind — do  not 
read  other  men's  opinions  upon  the  subject  be- 
fore you  have  clearly  thought  out  your  own 
conclusions  from  the  premises  of  the  elemental 
facts. 

As  to  style,  seek  only  to  be  clear.  Nothing 
else  is  important.  Never  try  to  be  elegant  or 
striking. 

Consider  the  method  of  the  Saviour  in  His 
addresses  to  the  people.  Next  to  Him,  those 
perfect  specimens  of  the  art  of  putting  things 
are  the  speeches  and  epistles  of  St.  Paul.  I 
know  of  nothing  in  literature  so  clear,  convin- 
cing, and  logical. 

The  words  of  the  Master  astonish  one  with 
their  absolute  unity  with  all  the  rules  of  effect- 
ive address. 

Especially  His  method  of  driving  home  a 
truth  by  repeating  it,  and  that,  too,  in  exactly 
the  same  words,  is  noticeable  and  very  effect- 
ive. He  did  not  fear  that  He  would  be  tire- 
some; He  was  concerned  only  in  being  clear. 
Take  the  following  examples — Matthew  vii: 

24.  Therefore,  whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of 
mine,  and  doeth  them,  I  will  liken  him  unto  a  wise 
man,  which  built  his  house  upon  a  rock  : 

25.  And  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came, 

235 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house ;  and  it 
fell  not :  for  it  was  founded  upon  a  rock. 

26.  And  every  one  that  heareth  these  sayings  of 
mine,  and  doeth  them  not,  shall  be  likened  unto  a  foolish 
man,  ivhich  built  his  house  upoji  the  sand  : 

27.  And  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and 
the  winds  blezv,  and  beat  upon  that  house ;  and  it  fell  : 
and  great  was  the  fall  of  it. 

Or  study  this — Matthew  v : 

29.  And  if  thy  right  eye  offend  thee,  pluck  it  out 
and  cast  it  from  thee  :  for  it  is  profitable  for  thee  that 
one  of  thy  members  should  perish,  and  not  that  thy 
whole  body  should  be  cast  into  hell. 

30.  And  if  thy  right  hand  offeiul  thee,  cut  it  off, 
and  cast  it  from  thee :  for  it  is  profitable  for  thee  that 
one  of  thy  members  should  perish,  and  not  that  thy 
whole  body  should  be  cast  into  hell. 

Or  this — Matthew  xxv: 

34.  Then  shall  the  King  say  unto  them  on  his  right 
hand,  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  king- 
dom prepared  for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world : 

35.  For  I  was  an  hungered,  and  ye  gave  me  meat :  I 
was  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  drink  :  I  was  a  stranger, 
and  ye  took  me  in  : 

36.  Naked,  and  ye  clothed  me :  I  was  sick,  and  ye 
visited  me  :   I  was  in  prison,  and  ye  came  unto  me. 

37.  Then  shall  the  righteous  answer  him,  saying. 
Lord,  when  saw  we  thee  an  hungered,  and  fed  thee  ?  or 
thirsty,  and  gave  thee  drinlc  ? 

236 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

38.  When  saw  we  thee  a  stranger,  and  took  thee  in  f 
or  naked,  and  clothed  thee  ? 

39.  Or  when  saw  we  thee  sick,  or  in  prison,  and 
came  unto  thee  ? 

40.  And  the  King  shall  answer  and  say  unto  them, 
Verily  I  say  unto  you,  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it 
unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have 
done  it  unto  me. 

41.  Then  shall  he  say  also  unto  them  on  the  left 
hand.  Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  fire, 
prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels  : 

42.  For  /  xoas  an  hungered,  and  ye  gave  me  no  meat: 
I XV as  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  no  drink  : 

43.  /  xoas  a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me  not  in :  naked, 
and  ye  clothed  me  not :  sick,  and  in  prison,  and  ye 
visited  me  not. 

44.  Then  shall  they  also  answer  him,  saying,  Lord, 
when  saw  we  thee  an  hungered,  or  athirst,  or  a  stranger, 
or  naked,  or  sick,  or  in  prison,  and  did  not  minister 
unto  thee? 

45.  Then  shall  he  ansxver  them,  saying.  Verily  I  say 
unto  you.  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  to  one  of  the  least 
of  these,  ye  did  it  not  to  me. 

Observe  the  exact  I'epetition  of  entire  sen- 
tences. Consider  Antony's  funeral  oration 
over  the  dead  body  of  Csesar,  and  note  the 
same  mastery  of  the  art  of  repetition. 

But,  like  all  powerful  weapons,  it  is  danger- 
ous to  one  who  is  not  a  natural  speaker.     It 

237 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

might  easily  be  fatal,  for  remember  that  we 
are  advised  to  "  use  not  vain  repetitions,  as  the 
heathen  do,  for  they  think  that  they  shall  be 
heard  for  their  much  speaking." 

Do  not  be  epigrammatic.  Never  "  coin  a 
phrase."  Never  make  a  sentence  for  the  pur- 
pose of  having  the  newspaper  quote  it  next 
day.  Usually  such  sentences  are  not  quoted. 
Even  if  they  are,  these  artificial  arrangements 
of  words  never  live.  The  reason  is  that  they 
a?'e  artificial — they  do  not  have  the  vitalit}^  of 
sincerity.  Let  your  striking  expressions  come 
naturally  as  the  climax  and  flowering  of  your 
thought.  Then  they  will  live.  They  will  live 
because  they  will  be  truthful — natural.  Noth- 
ing but  the  sincere  endures. 

In  political  speaking,  seldom  be  harsh,  sel- 
dom denounce,  seldom  "  pour  hot  shot  into  the 
enemy  "  as  our  newspaper  head-liners  put  it. 
Men  in  other  parties  are  not  your  enemies  or  the 
country's — they  are  fellow  Americans  to  whom 
you  are  trying  to  show  the  truth  as  you  see  it. 
I  like  to  believe  that  all  Americans  are  patriots, 
inspired  by  sincere  concern  for  the  common 
good  and  the  welfare  of  the  Republic. 

There  is  nothing  in  denunciation — nothing 
in  abuse — nothing  but  bad  taste.  "  There  is 
no  particular  argument  in  slander,"  exclaimed 

238 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

Ingersoll  in  one  of  our  fervid  campaigns.  The 
man  who  "  pours  hot  shot  into  the  enemy  "  is 
using  an  obsolete  method.  Don't  j^ou  use  it, 
young  man.  You  be  reasonable,  considerate, 
earnest  only  to  show  your  hearer  that  you  are 
in  the  right.  This  rule  is  unvarying  except, 
of  course,  when  great  crises  occur,  when  trea- 
son is  afoot,  the  Nation's  honor  in  danger,  and 
the  like.    But  such  seasons  of  peril  are  rare. 

In  all  speaking  be  moderate  in  statement. 
Over  statement  is  very  dangerous ;  under  state- 
ment subtly  powerful.  Moderation!  I  know 
but  two  words  so  potent — honor  and  industry. 
Honor,  industry,  moderation!  What  can  pre- 
vail against,  this  trinity !  And  in  young  men 
moderation  is  peculiarly  beautiful. 

I  doubt  if  any  man  can  be  a  great  speaker 
who  does  not  have  in  him  the  religious  element. 
I  do  not  mean  that  he  shall  be  good  (one  may 
be  good  and  not  religious,  or  religious  and  not 
be  good,  as  any  professor  of  mental  and  moral 
philosophy  will  tell  you),  but  that  he  shall 
have  in  him  that  mysticism,  that  elemental  and 
instinctive  conviction  of  the  higher  power  and 
its  providence,  which  makes  him  in  sympathy 
with  the  great  mass  of  humanity.  I  think 
Ingersoll  had  this  element  in  him,  notwith- 
standing his  attacks  upon  religion. 

239 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

Emerson  has  pointed  out  that  the  great 
speaker — yes,  and  the  great  man — is  he  who 
best  interprets  the  common  feehng  and  tend- 
ency of  the  masses. 

Very  well;  the  profoundest  feeling  among 
the  masses,  the  most  influential  element  in  their 
character,  is  the  religious  element.  It  is  as 
instinctive  and  elemental  as  the  law  of  self- 
preservation.  It  informs  the  whole  intellect 
and  personality  of  the  people. 

Therefore  he  who  would  greatly  influence 
the  people  by  uttering  their  unformed  thought 
must  have  this  great  invisible  and  unanalyzable 
bond  of  sympathy  with  them.  I  will  let  your 
preacher  work  this  out  more  elaborately  for 
you. 

One  word  more ;  and  to  this  word  listen  and 
hearken  and  bind  it  on  the  tablets  of  your 
understanding. 

Insincerity  cuts  the  heart  out  of  all  oratory. 

You  may  marshal  your  arguments  and  con- 
coct your  pretty  devices  of  words,  and  work 
yourself  into  a  great  heat  in  the  speaking  of 
them;  but  if  you  do  not  believe  what  you  say 
you  are  only  a  play-actor  after  all — a  poor 
mummer  reciting  your  own  lines. 

You  had  far  better  be  a  professional  actor; 
that  will,  at  least,  insure  you  excellent  lines  to 

240 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

declaim.  The  dramatic  profession  is  devoted 
to  the  interpretation  of  art  in  one  of  its  high- 
est forms.  A  true  actor  is  a  true  artist — 
painter  and  sculptor  no  more  so. 

If  Polus  stands  on  a  lower  pedestal  than 
Praxiteles  in  mankind's  esteem  it  is  because 
his  genius  was  not  so  brilliant  and  not  because 
the  art  of  acting  is  less  noble  than  that  of 
sculpture.  Talma  was  more  eminent  than 
David.  Bernhardt  is  as  noted  and  notable  as 
Millet,  Irving  as  distinguished  as  Millais; 
while  in  our  own  country  not  more  than  two 
men  in  painting  and  sculpture  deserve  places 
beside  Booth  and  Forrest  as  high  priests  of 
Ai-t.  , 

That  your  audience  applauds  you  is  noth- 
ing. The  same  audience  would  applaud 
Paderewski  or  a  great  prestidigitator.  You 
see,  your  audience  may  applaud  you  because 
you  have  put  your  thought  cleverly,  or  jug- 
gled your  words  attractively,  or  thrown  over 
them  that  magnetic  spell  which  all  great  per- 
sonalities have.  It  may  clap  its  hands  because 
you  have  entertained  it. 

But  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  the  truth? 
And  why  are  you  speaking  at  all,  unless  it  is 
that  you,  knowing  the  truth,  are  trying  to  show 
the  truth  to  others?    So  do  not  seek  to  arouse 

241 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

applause  for  its  own  sake.  If  it  comes  natur- 
ally, spontaneously,  it  is  a  pleasant  tribute  to 
your  cause.  But  if  you  win  it  by  your  art,  it  is 
merely  a  tribute  to  your  powers.  And  you  are 
not  speaking  for  yourself — you  are  speaking 
for  your  cause. 

The  wife  of  one  of  the  most  effective  of 
American  speakers  is  reported  to  have  said 
to  him:  "  I  wish  you  would  deliver  a  speech 
which  no  one  can  possibly  applaud."  Of 
course  what  she  meant  was  that  she  would 
like  to  see  him  devote  himself  to  getting  the 
truth  before  the  people  without  resorting  to 
any  of  the  tricks  of  oratory. 

No  matter  how  much  a  wizard  of  words 
Nature  may  have  made  him ;  no  matter  that  he 
has  the  dark  art  of  making  the  worse  appear 
the  better  reason;  no  matter  that  his  golden 
voice  is  like  music,  and  his  very  appearance 
pleasantly  thrills  you  with  the  strange  and 
subtle  magnetism  of  the  man:  if  he  have  not 
sincerity,  all  these  are  nothing. 

And  he  cannot  affect  sincerity  and  fool  the 
people  very  long.  He  may  fool  them  in  one 
speech  or  in  one  campaign  if  he  be  a  political 
speaker,  but  ultimately  the  people  will  sense 
his  moral  quality  and  he  will  be  discredited. 

This  very  thing  happened  to  a  celebrated 
242 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

American  speaker  who  may  be  said  to  have 
been  endowed  with  genius.  There  was  no  re- 
sisting the  man  while  he  was  speaking.  But 
he  never  was  honestly  in  earnest.  He  never 
really  cared  for  his  cause.  There  was  never 
a  moment  when  he  could  not  have  spoken  as 
effectively  for  the  other  side. 

Finally  this  got  through  the  consciousness 
of  the  people,  and  his  power  over  their  convic- 
tions speedily  dissolved. 

Many  years  ago  a  business  friend  of  mine 
heard  this  man  speak  on  a  notable  occasion. 
His  address  was  on  a  subject  in  which  the 
people  were  deeply  interested,  and  was  a  mas- 
terpiece of  mingled  argument  and  pathos ;  and 
his  audience  belonged  to  him.  It  had  no  mind 
but  his,  no  will  but  his. 

Afterward  my  friend  said  to  me:  "  That 
man  will  not  last;  he  is  not  honest.  At  one 
climax  so  pure,  so  exalted,  so  tender,  that  I 
found  tears  in  my  own  eyes,  I  saw  him  wink 
at  some  intimate  friends  who  were  sitting  in  a 
stage-box  at  his  right.  I  was  between  them. 
They  were  watching  him  as  they  would  have 
watched  a  friend  who  was  an  actor.  He,  on 
his  part,  was  showing  them  what  he  could  do. 
That  wink  said:  '  See  how  I  did  that.  Now 
observe  me  closely!   I  will  throw  still  another 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

ball  of  emotion  into  the  air  and  juggle  with 
it,  too.'  " 

And  sure  enough,  he  did  not  last.  His  trop- 
ical mind  lasted,  his  chameleon  imagination 
lasted,  his  compelling  personality,  his  grace, 
charm,  witchery  of  words — all  these  lasted; 
but  all  these  were  nothing  without  that  honesty 
which  would  make  him  die  rather  than  speak 
for  a  cause  in  which  he  did  not  believe,  or  be 
silent  when  a  cause  in  which  he  believed  was  at 
issue  and  in  peril. 

The  people  went  to  hear  him  even  after  they 
had  ceased  to  believe  in  him.  They  applauded, 
laughed,  or  were  silent  as  he  pleased.  But  they 
were  being  entertained — nothing  more.  His 
art  was  still  perfect,  but  his  power  over  the 
minds  and  souls  of  men  which  made  men  be- 
lieve and  do  was  gone  forever. 

Believe  what  you  say,  therefore.  Say  what 
you  believe.  Say  it  simply,  earnestly,  as 
though  you  were  pleading  for  all  that  is  dear- 
est to  you  on  earth.  For,  after  all,  that  is 
what  you  are  speaking  for — truth.  And  if 
the  truth  for  which  you  are  speaking  is  not 
dear  to  you,  go  about  your  other  business  and 
remain  silent. 

Let  your  brother  who  has  "  the  call "  utter 
that  message  which  your  faith  is  not  strong 

244 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

enough  to  voice ;  for  he,  having  "  the  call,"  will 
"  speak  as  one  having  authority,"  and  there- 
fore "  the  common  people  will  hear  him 
gladly." 

To  effect  anything;  to  achieve  a  result;  to 
make  your  words  deeds,  as  the  old  Scotch 
thinker  declared  they  should  be  or  else  not 
be  uttered,  you  must  teach.  And  in  your 
teaching  you  must  teach  "  as  one  having  au- 
thority." 

To  the  Master  we  must  go,  after  all,  even 
for  our  methods  of  utterance,  and  at  His  feet 
learn  that  oratory  is  the  utterance  of  the  truth 
by  one  who  knows  it  to  be  the  truth.  And  so 
will  your  words  be  words  of  fire,  and  your 
speech  have  weight  among  your  fellow  men. 


245 


VII 

THE    YOUNG    MAN    AND    THE    PULPIT 

All  who  do  their  best,  and  in  doing  their 
best  do  a  good  piece  of  work,  deserve  equal 
credit  whether  the  work  be  Httle  or  big.  The 
architect  who  builds  a  house  has  wrought  for 
humanity  as  truly  as  the  statesman  who  builds 
a  government.  One  man  can  make  bricks  well 
and  another  lead  armies  to  victory;  yet  each 
one  has  fulfilled  his  destiny  if  his  achievement 
was  what  he  was  fitted  for  and  if  he  has  done 
his  best. 

From  one  point  of  view  all  occupations  that 
help  one's  fellow  men  are  important.  Who 
shall  say  that  the  hod-carrier  has  not  done  as 
much  for  humanity  as  orator  or  poet.  The 
cook  is  as  necessary  as  the  philosopher.  Com- 
pare the  blacksmith  and  the  sculptor.  The 
point  is,  that  all  useful  labor  is  equally  noble. 
It  all  has  its  place.  Each  of  the  workers  of 
the  world  is  required  in  the  human  cosmos. 

It  may  not  be  that  the  worker  himself  sees 
that  he  is  essential.  It  may  not  be  that  he 
understands  the  outcome  of  his  striving.  For 
that  matter  we  are  each  and  all  toiling  as 

246 


THE    YOUNG  MAN   AND    THE   PULPIT 

blindly  as  the  coral  insect,  and  yet  our  labor 
is  as  much  a  part  of  a  symmetrical  structure 
as  is  the  life  and  perishing  of  that  polyp. 

We  are  all  pouring  out  our  energies  day 
by  day  without  understanding  what  effect  our 
spent  lives  will  have  in  the  general  result  of 
himian  effort.  And  some  of  us  get  heart-sick, 
no  doubt,  and  weary;  and  discouragement 
whispers,  "  What's  the  use,"  and  many  another 
wily  phrase  of  Satan. 

Very  well;  let  every  man,  however  humble 
or  conspicuous  his  place  among  men,  under- 
stand that  his  work  does  count  and  will  be- 
come a  part  of  an  harmonious  whole.  "All 
things  work  together  for  good." 

No  matter  that  we  do  not  know  what  we  are 
here  for.  We  may  not  understand  how  our 
lives  are  to  be  woven  into  the  great  design  of 
the  world's  work  any  more  than  a  single  thread 
of  some  wonderful  and  beautiful  rug  under- 
stands the  pattern  of  which  it  is  a  part. 

No  matter,  I  say.  The  Master-Weaver 
understands  what  we  are  here  for  and  what  we 
are  doing,  and  that  is  enough.  He  has  uses 
for  every  sound  thread  and  doubtless  one  is 
as  important  as  another.  Vaunt  not  yourself 
O  thread  of  purple,  over  your  fellow-thread 
of  white! 

247 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

Asserting  then  that  the  man  who  quarries 
stone  has  served  humanity  as  well  as  he  who 
writes  a  book,  if  quarrying  stone  is  what  he 
can  do  best;  asserting  the  equal  value  of  all 
things  done  well  and  the  equal  dignity  of  all 
sincere  and  honest  work  of  hand  and  brain, 
I  shall  not  be  misunderstood  when  I  say  that 
the  present  day  has  developed  three  careers 
of  usefulness  which,  while  not  more  impor- 
tant, are  more  continuously  prominent  than 
any  others. 

These  are  statesmanship,  journalism,  and  the 
pulpit. 

The  Pulpit  deals  with  faith.  It  has  to  do 
with  religion.  Religion  makes  moral  ideals 
vital.  Moral  ideals  make  individual  life  sweet 
and  satisfying,  national  life  strong  and  pure. 
"  Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation."  The 
young  man  and  the  pulpit  are  therefore  pre- 
eminent in  conspicuity. 

The  American  people  at  heart  are  a  re- 
ligious people.  They  are  practical  and  fear- 
less, too.  If  you  will  listen  to  the  chance 
conversations  of  the  ordinary  American  you 
will  find  that  the  laymen  of  the  Nation  have 
some  very  decided  views  upon  the  Pulpit,  the 
man  who  fills  it,  and  the  work  he  ought 
to  do. 

248 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND    THE   PULPIT 

In  the  breast  of  the  milhons  there  is  not 
only  a  great  need  but  a  great  yearning  for 
certain  things  of  the  soul  which  it  is  for  the 
Pulpit  to  supply.  This  paper  is  an  attempt 
to  talk  as  one  of  these  millions  to  the  young 
man  who  is  about  to  mount  to  this  sacred 
station. 

"  I  have  just  come  from  church,"  said  a 
friend  one  day,  "  and  I  am  tired  and  disap- 
pointed. I  went  to  hear  a  sermon  and  I  lis- 
tened to  a  lecture. 

"  I  went  to  worship  and  I  was  merely  en- 
tertained. 

"  The  preacher  was  a  brilliant  man  and  his 
address  was  an  intellectual  treat ;  but  I  did  not 
go  to  church  to  hear  a  professional  lecturer. 
When  I  want  merely  to  be  entertained  I  will 
go  to  the  theater. 

*'  But  I  do  not  like  to  hear  a  preacher  prin- 
cipally try  to  be  either  orator  or  artist.  I  am 
pleased  if  he  is  both;  but  before  everything 
else  I  want  him  to  bear  me  the  Master's  mes- 
sage. I  want  the  minister  to  preach  Christ  and 
Him  crucified." 

The  man  who  said  this  was  a  journalist  of 
ripe  years,  highly  educated,  widely  experi- 
enced, acquainted  with  men  and  life.  He  was 
world-weary  with  that  weariness  which  comes 
17  249 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

of  the  journalist's  incessant  contact  with  every 
phase  of  human  activity,  g-ood  and  bad,  great 
and  small. 

For  no  man  touches  life  at  so  many  points 
and  is  both  so  rich  in  and  worn  by  human 
experiences  as  the  newspaper  man  in  daily 
service.  And  I  have  found  that  this  expression 
of  the  wise  old  man  of  the  press  whom  I  have 
quoted  fairly  reflects  a  general  feeling  among 
men  of  all  other  classes. 

First,  then,  young  man  aspiring  to  the  Pul- 
pit, the  world  expects  you  to  be  above  all  other 
things  a  minister  of  the  Gospel.  It  does  not 
expect  you  to  be,  primarily,  a  brilliant  man, 
or  a  learned  man,  or  witty,  or  eloquent,  or  any 
other  thing  that  would  put  your  name  on  the 
tongues  of  men.  The  world  will  be  glad  if 
you  are  all  of  these,  of  course ;  but  it  wants  you 
to  be  a  preacher  of  the  Word  before  anything 
else.  It  expects  that  all  your  talents  will  be 
consecrated  to  your  sacred  calling. 

It  expects  you  to  speak  to  the  heart,  as  well 
as  to  the  understanding,  of  men  and  women, 
of  the  high  things  of  faith,  of  the  deep  things 
of  life  and  death.  The  great  world  of  worn 
and  weary  humanity  wants  from  the  Pulpit 
that  word  of  helpfulness  and  power  and  peace 
which  is  spoken  only  by  him  who  has  utterly 

250 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND    THE   PULPIT 

forgotten  all  things  except  his  holy  mission. 
Therefore  merge  all  of  your  striking  qualities 
into  the  divine  purpose  of  which  you  are  the 
agent.  Lose  consciousness  of  yourself  in  the 
burning  consciousness  of  your  cause. 

Very  well;  but  if  you  do  that  you  must  be 
very  sure  of  your  own  belief.  Any  man  who 
assumes  to  teach  the  Christian  faith,  who  in  his 
own  secret  heart  questions  that  faith  himself, 
commits  a  sacrilege  every  time  he  enters  the 
pulpit. 

Can  it  be  that  the  lack  of  living  interest  in 
certain  church  services  is  caused  by  a  sort  of 
subconscious  knowledge  of  the  people,  that  the 
minister  himself  is  speaking  from  the  head 
rather  than  from  the  heart;  that  what  he  says 
comes  from  his  intellect  and  not  as  the  "  spirit 
gives  him  utterance  " ;  and,  to  put  it  bluntly, 
that  he  himself  "  no  more  than  half  believes 
what  he  says." 

"  The  man  spoke  as  if  he  were  bored  with 
endless  repetition  of  sermons,"  said  a  close  ob- 
server of  a  weary  parson. 

Certain  it  is  that  even  in  political  speaking 
the  man  who  believes  what  he  says  has  power 
over  his  audience  out  of  all  comparison  with 
a  far  more  eloquent  man  whom  his  hearers 
know  to  be  speaking  perfunctorily. 

251 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

No  matter  how  much  the  latter  kind  of 
speaker  pohshes  his  periods,  no  matter  how 
fruitful  in  thought  his  address,  no  matter  how 
perfect  the  art  of  his  delivery,  he  fails  in  the 
ultimate  effect  wrought  by  a  much  inferior 
speaker  whose  words  are  charged  with  con- 
viction. 

He  is  like  the  chemist's  grain  of  wheat,  per- 
fect in  all  its  constituent  elements  except  the 
mysterious  spark  of  life,  without  which  the 
wheat  grain  will  not  grow. 

If  then  you  do  not  believe  what  you  say 
and  believe  it  with  all  your  soul,  believe  it  in 
your  heart  of  hearts,  do  not  try  to  get  other 
men  to  believe  it.  You  will  not  be  honest  if 
you  do.  The  world  expects  you  to  be  sure 
of  yourself.  How  do  you  expect  to  make 
other  people  sure  of  themselves  if  you  are  not 
sure  of  yourself? 

"  And  why  beholdest  thou  the  mote  that  is  in  thy 
brother's  eye,  but  considerest  not  the  beam  that  is  in 
thine  own  eye  ? 

"  Or  how  wilt  thou  say  to  thy  brother,  let  me  pull 
out  the  mote  out  of  thine  eye ;  and,  behold,  a  beam  is 
in  thine  own  eye  ? 

"  Thou  hypocrite,  first  cast  out  the  beam  out  of 
thine  own  eye ;  and  then  shalt  thou  see  clearly  to  cast 
out  the  mote  out  of  thy  brother's  eye." 

252 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE   PULPIT 

The  world  is  hungry  for  faith.  Do  not 
doubt  this  for  a  moment.  More  men  and 
women  to-day  would  rather  believe  in  the  few 
fundamentals  of  the  Christian  religion  than 
have  any  other  gift  that  lavish  fortune  could 
bestow  upon  them. 

But  these  millions  want  to  believe;  they  do 
not  want  to  argue  or  be  argued  at. 

They  want  to  believe  so  utterly  that  their 
faith  amounts  to  knowledge.  Doubtings  are 
disquieting;  pros  and  cons  are  monotonous. 
We  want  certainty,  we  laymen. 

For  years  I  have  made  it  a  point  to  get  the 
opinion  of  the  ablest  and  most  widely  experi- 
enced men  and  women  I  met  on  the  subject 
of  immortality.  In  all  cases  I  found  that  the 
subject  in  which  they  were  more  deeply  inter- 
ested than  in  all  other  subjects  put  together. 

"  I  would  rather  be  sure  that  when  a  man 
dies  he  will  live  again  with  his  conscious 
identity,  than  to  have  all  the  wealth  of  the 
United  States,  or  to  occupy  any  position  of 
honor  or  power  the  world  could  possibly  give," 
said  a  man  whose  name  is  known  to  the  rail- 
road world  as  one  of  the  ablest  transportation 
men  in  the  United  States. 

"  Do  you  know  when  I  am  by  myself  I 
think  about  a  lot  of  strange  things.     Is  the 

253 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

soul  immortal  and  what  is  the  soul  anyhow? " 
It  is  a  politician  who  is  talking  now,  and  a 
ward  politician  at  that,  a  man  whom  few  would 
suspect  of  thinking  upon  these  subjects  at  all. 

So  you  see,  young  man,  you  who  are  being 
measured  for  the  Cloth,  that  all  manner  and 
conditions  of  men  are  thinking  about  the  great 
problems  of  which  you  are  the  expounder,  and 
longing  for  the  answer  to  those  problems  which 
it  is  your  business  to  give  them.  That  is  the 
condition  of  the  mind  of  the  millions. 

Very  well!  What  is  the  condition  of  the 
mind  of  the  young  minister  ?  A  few  years  ago 
a  certain  man,  with  good  opportunities  for  the 
investigation  and  a  probability  of  sincere  an- 
swers, asked  every  young  preacher  whom  he 
met  during  a  summer  vacation  these  questions : 

"  First,  Yes  or  no,  do  you  believe  in  God, 
the  Father;  God  a  person,  God  a  definite 
and  tangible  intelligence — not  a  congeries  of 
laws  floating  like  a  fog  through  the  universe; 
but  God  a  person  in  whose  image  you  were 
made?  Don't  argue;  don't  explain;  but  is  your 
mind  in  a  condition  where  you  can  answer 
yes  or  no? " 

Not  a  man  answered  "  Yes."  Each  man 
wanted  to  explain  that  the  Deity  might  be  a 
definite  intelligence   or  might  not;   that  the 

254 


THE    YOUNG  MAN   AND    THE   PULPIT 

"  latest  thought "  was  much  confused  upon 
the  matter,  and  so  forth  and  so  on. 

"  Second,  Yes  or  no,  do  you  beheve  that 
Christ  was  the  son  of  the  Hving  God,  sent 
by  Him  to  save  the  world?  I  am  not  asking 
whether  you  believe  that  He  was  inspired  in 
the  sense  that  the  great  moral  teachers  are 
inspired — nobody  has  any  difficulty  about  that. 
But  do  you  believe  that  Christ  was  God's  very 
Son,  with  a  divinely  appointed  and  deJfinite 
mission,  dying  on  the  cross  and  raised  from 
the  dead — yes  or  no?  " 

Again  not  a  single  answer  with  an  unequiv- 
ocal, earnest  "  Yes."  But  again  explana- 
tions were  offered  and  in  at  least  half  the  in- 
stances the  sum  of  most  of  the  answers  was 
that  Christ  was  the  most  perfect  man  that  the 
world  had  seen  and  humanity's  greatest  moral 
teacher. 

"  Third,  Do  you  believe  that  when  you  die 
you  will  live  again  as  a  conscious  intelligence, 
knowing  who  you  are  and  who  other  people 
are  ( 

Again,  not  one  answer  was  unconditionally 
affirmative.  "Of  course  they  were  not  sure 
as  a  matter  of  knowledge."  "Of  course  that 
could  not  be  known  positively."  "  On  the 
whole,  they  were  inclined  to  think  so,  but  there 

255 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

were  very  stubborn  objections,"  and  so  forth 
and  so  on. 

The  men  to  whom  these  questions  were  put 
were  particularly  high-grade  ministers.  One 
of  them  had  already  won  a  distinguished  repu- 
tation in  New  York  and  the  New  England 
states  for  his  eloquence  and  piety.  Every  one 
of  them  had  had  unusual  successes  with  fash- 
ionable congregations. 

But  every  one  of  them  had  noted  an  ab- 
sence of  real  influence  upon  the  hearts  of  their 
hearers  and  all  thought  that  this  same  con- 
dition is  spreading  throughout  the  modern 
pulpit. 

Yet  not  one  of  them  suspected  that  the  pro- 
found cause  of  what  they  called  "  the  decay 
of  faith  "  was,  not  in  the  world  of  men  and 
women,  but  in  themselves.  How  could  such 
priests  of  ice  warm  the  souls  of  men?  How 
could  such  apostles  of  interrogation  convert 
a  world? 

These  were  not  examples,  however;  they 
were  exceptions.  Most  preachers  believe  that 
they  actually  know  the  truths  they  teach.  By 
and  large,  the  twentieth  century  Christian 
ministry  is  sound  and  sure.  The  missionary 
fire  still  burns  in  consecrated  breasts. 

And  that  is  a  lucky  thing  for  the  Christian 
256 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND    THE   PULPIT 

world.  We  Westerners — we  of  America  and 
Europe — would  go  all  to  pieces  otherwise. 
You  see  we  Occidentals  have  not  eons  of 
fatalistic  paganism  to  fall  back  on  as  have 
the  sons  of  the  East.  They  endure  without 
our  religion.  But  we — what  would  happen  to 
us  if  Cliristianity  did  not  unite,  purify,  and 
exalt  us. 

From  the  view-point  of  the  layman  then, 
yes  and  even  far  more  from  your  own  view- 
point, be  sure  of  your  faith,  preparer  for  the 
pulpit.    Faith  is  only  another  word  for  power. 

We  see  it  in  the  small  things  of  life.  Note 
the  influence  on  his  fellow  citizens  of  a  man 
who  asserts  something  positively  and  heartily 
believes  what  he  asserts,  even  though  that 
thing  be  untrue  and  unwise. 

We  see  it  in  the  great  things  of  history. 
Witness  the  inferior  mentality  but  the  burning 
ardor  of  a  Peter  the  Hermit,  moving  all  Eu- 
rope to  the  most  extraordinary  war  the  world 
has  seen.  Consider  Napoleon  crossing  the 
Alps — an  achievement  all  men  said  was  im- 
possible. Impossible!  That  word  is  found 
only  in  the  dictionary  of  superstition. 

But  your  faith,  young  man,  you  who  are 
about  to  go  into  the  Pulpit,  does  not  deal  with 
little  things.     It  is  not  interested  even  in  the 

257 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

large  affairs  of  statesmanship,  as  such.  Yet 
it  embraces  all  matters.  It  involves  concerns 
more  important  than  all  history. 

Limitless  eternity  is  its  field.  Everlasting 
life  is  its  subject.  The  Ancient  of  Days  is 
its  awful  famihar.  It  has  to  do  with  the 
righteous  conduct  of  individual  men  and 
women  here  on  earth  and  of  their  eternal  felic- 
ity in  the  world  to  come.  The  Ineffable  One 
whose  crucifixion  has  made  the  cross  a  symbol 
of  all  good  and  the  emblem  of  our  highest 
hope  is  its  divine  and  inspiring  author. 

How  noble  the  attitude  of  that  intellect 
which  is  uplifted  by  a  belief  so  glorious.  No 
wonder  that  he  who  possesses  this  faith  works 
miracles  in  himian  character  more  astounding 
than  the  dazzling  wonders  which  science 
wrings  from  reluctant  matter.  No,  not  he  who 
possesses  this  faith,  but  him  whom  this  faith 
POSSESSES.  The  faith  is  the  reality — you  are 
but  the  instrument  through  which  that  faith 
works  out  the  winning  of  the  world.  Look 
to  your  faith  then,  you  who  seek  to  save  the 
souls  of  men. 

For  now  as  ever  mankind  awaits  the  magic 
voice  of  him  whose  faith  in  God  the  Father, 
in  Christ  His  son  and  in  the  life  eternal  is 
strong  as  knowledge  itself.     Think  of  John 

258 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND    THE   PULPIT 

Wesley,  think  of  Ignatius  Loyola,  think  of 
the  inspired  young  man  who  this  very  year 
has  lifted  all  Wales  to  spiritual  heights  as 
elevated  as  those  to  which  Savonarola  led 
beautiful  and  dissolute  Florence,  and  the  fire 
of  whose  revival  promises  to  spread  over  the 
United  Kingdom,  purifying  all  it  touches. 

What  said  they  of  the  Master?  "  For  He 
spake  as  one  having  authority  and  the  common 
people  heard  Him  gladly."  It  was  true  of 
Him,  too.  And  it  has  been  true  of  each  of 
those  princes  of  faith  who,  during  two  thou- 
sand years,  have  followed  the  directions  of 
their  thorn-crowned  Lord. 

He  declared  to  his  disciples:  "If  ye  have 
faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  ye  shall  say 
unto  this  mountain,  Remove  hence  to  yonder 
place;  and  it  shall  remove;  and  nothing  shall 
be  impossible  unto  you." 

If  you  have  not  an  undoubting  belief,  you 
may  carve  out  your  sentences  as  curiously  as 
you  will ;  deliver  them  with  the  voice  of  music, 
and  yet  be  nothing  but  an  entertainer.  Speak- 
ing as  one  of  the  "  men  of  the  street,"  as  one  of 
the  millions,  I  think  that  the  best  thing  for 
you  to  attend  to  is  this  question  of  faith. 

I  have  no  lespect  for  a  lawyer  who  does 
not  know  certain  fundamental  definitions  by 

259 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

heart ;  and  I  have  less  respect  for  the  preacher 
who  cannot  repeat  the  eleventh  chapter  of 
Hebrews  oiFhand. 

Get  your  faith  into  you?'  hlood;  the  brain 
is  the  place  for  your  reasonings  and  argu- 
mentations. 

You  say  that  you  are  a  soldier  of  heaven, 
battling  with  the  world — meaning  that  you 
represent  righteousness  as  opposed  to  evil. 
That  is  your  attitude — your  conception  of  your 
mission.  Very  well,  the  secret  of  your 
strength  has  never  been  so  well  stated  as  in 
the  words  of  the  Apostle,  "  This  is  the  victory 
that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith." 

Four  of  the  most  extraordinary  doers  of 
God's  work  in  the  world  were  Luther,  Loyola, 
Wesley,  and  Savonarola.  Each  of  this  com- 
pany of  practical  and  militant  Christianity 
has  life  instruction  for  you.  But  in  the  art 
of  preaching,  as  such,  Savonarola  has  more 
than  either  of  the  others,  although  Wesley  is 
nearly  his  equal,  and,  as  an  organizer,  vastly 
his  superior.  He  perfectly  illustrates  the  mi- 
raculous power  of  conviction  in  mere  oratory. 

I  would  advise  every  young  man  who  in- 
tends to  enter  the  pulpit  to  read  carefully  the 
best  life  of  this  wonderful  preacher,  reformer, 
and  statesman.    And  supplement  your  study 

260 


i 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND    THE   PULPIT 

of  him  and  his  methods  by  reading  George 
Eliot's  historical  novel,  "  Romola." 

The  great  Dominican  was  a  Lombard,  of 
harsh  accent  and  strange  face,  come  to  live 
in  the  most  cultured  city  in  the  world.  Flor- 
ence was  then  in  the  full  flowering  of  litera- 
ture and  art;  and  in  her  overripe  perfections 
the  poison  was  distilling  of  greed  and  cruelty 
and  lubricity  and  all  loathsomeness. 

Over  this  capital  of  learning,  genius,  and  sin 
iTiled  "  The  Magnificent"  INIedici,  sitting  with 
easy  power  on  his  splendid  throne  and  wield- 
ing his  scepter  with  the  accurate  skill  of  a  per- 
fect craft  and  the  strong  decision  of  a  fearless 
heart. 

But  you  know  the  story.  It  was  not  an 
inviting  field  for  a  preacher  who  burned  to 
utter  the  Word  and  at  the  same  time  hoped  to 
enjoy  the  smiles  and  favors  of  the  great.  It 
was  not  an  encouraging  prospect  for  any  one 
who  wanted  to  restore  the  reign  of  righteous- 
ness, even  though  he  were  willing  to  pay  the 
price  of  martyrdom. 

But  Savonarola  accomplished  all  this  and 
more ;  for  he  crowned  the  renaissance  of  letters 
and  art  with  the  renaissance  of  Christian 
morals  and  religion  whose  pure  and  beautiful 
influence  reaches  even  unto  our  day. 

261 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

And  he  did  it  by  faith  more  than  by  all  other 
things  put  together — a  faith  so  rapt  that,  to 
our  less  passionate  natures,  it  seems  to  have 
been  the  very  insanity  of  fanaticism.  But  it 
did  the  work;  and  that  is  the  thing  after  all. 

His  sermons  do  not  seem  to  be  more  re- 
markable when  you  read  them  than  those  of 
many  another  pulpiteer,  although  they  are  full 
of  thought.  We  are  told,  however,  that  his 
voice  had  in  it  a  terrible  earnestness,  and  his 
manner  was  so  impassioned  that  he  sometimes 
seemed  to  forget  himself. 

But  all  agree  that  the  magic  with  which 
he  wrought  his  wonders  from  the  pulpit  was 
the  feeling  that  everybody  had  that  Fra  Giro- 
lamo  believed  what  he  said^  knew  what  he  said, 
meant  what  he  said. 

The  immediate  effect  was  astonishing — 
(the  after  effect  still  thrills  the  world).  Mrs. 
Oliphant  quotes  Burlamacchi's  description  of 
Savonarola's  influence  over  the  people  thus: 
"  The  people  got  up  in  the  middle  of  the  night 
to  get  places  for  the  sermon.  They  came  to 
the  door  of  the  cathedral  waiting  outside  until 
it  should  be  opened,  making  no  account  of  the 
inconvenience,  neither  of  the  cold  nor  the  wind 
nor  the  standing  in  winter  with  their  feet  on 
the  marble." 

262 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   PULPIT 

I  emphasize  the  point  that  this  effect  was 
not  exclusively  oratorical,  nor  merely  mag- 
netic. Chiefly  it  was  what  the  world  has  al- 
ways seen  and  always  will  see  when  it  beholds 
a  strong  man  in  deadly  earnest  for  a  righteous 
cause. 

We  know  that  this  is  so  because  "  The  Mag- 
nificent "  induced  the  most  cultivated  pulpiteer 
in  all  Italy  to  preach  sermons  in  Florence  so 
as  to  divert  attention  from  Savonarola;  and 
this  master  of  the  pulpit,  whom  Lorenzo  won 
to  his  pur^^ose,  was  better  liked  and  more 
greatly  admired  by  the  people  of  Florence 
than  any  other  orator. 

His  name  was  Fra  Mariano,  and  it  was  ad- 
mitted that  he  was  a  far  better  speaker  than 
Savonarola.  Yet  he  failed  utterly,  unaccount- 
ably. He  had  better  elocution,  a  richer  voice, 
more  "  magnetism,"  more  attractive  qualities 
every  way  than  Savonarola,  and  as  much  learn- 
ing; hut  he  did  not  have  as  much  faith. 

I  am  dwelling  upon  this  because  I  am  quite 
sure  that  the  people  are  more  interested  in  ac- 
quiring faith  than  they  are  in  all  your  oratori- 
cals;  and  because,  too,  I  am  quite  sure  that  it 
is  the  only  certain  method  of  your  effective- 
ness. 

Faith  is  infectious.  James  Whitcomb  Riley, 
263 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

whose  sweetness  of  character  and  uphftedness 
of  soul  equal  his  genius,  gave  me  the  best  recipe 
for  faith  in  God,  Christ,  and  Immortality  I 
have  ever  heard: 

"  Just  beheve,"  said  he;  "  don't  argue  about 
it ;  don't  question  it ;  simply  say,  '  I  believe.' 
Next  day  you  will  find  yourself  believing  a 
little  less  feebly,  and  finally  your  faith  will 
be  absolute,  certain,  and  established." 

And  why  not — ^you  of  the  schools  who  split 
hairs  and  dispute  and  come  to  nothing  in  the 
end,  and  whose  knowledge,  after  all,  as  Savon- 
arola so  well  said,  comes  to  nothing — why  not? 
For  if  you  cannot  prove  God  and  Christ  and 
Immortality,  it  is  very  sure  you  cannot  dis- 
prove them;  and  it  is  safe — yes,  and  splendid 
— to  believe  in  these  three  marvelous  reali- 
ties; or  conceptions,  if  you  like  that  word 
better. 

The  doctrine  of  noblesse  oblige  was  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  of  human  conventions.  It 
was  based  upon  the  proposition  that  a  man 
being  noble  and  the  son  of  a  nobleman  could 
not  do  a  mean  thing — it  was  not  good  form. 

But  if  a  man  gets  it  into  his  consciousness 
that  he  is  the  child,  not  of  a  nobleman,  not  of  an 
earthly  ruler,  not  of  a  great  statesman,  war- 
rior, scientist,  or  financier,  but  of  the  living 

264 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND    THE   PULPIT 

God  who  presides  over  the  universe,  how  large, 
how  generous,  how  exalted,  and  how  fine  his 
attitude  toward  life  and  all  his  conduct  needs 
must  be. 

Savonarola  was  not  alone  in  the  vast  crowds 
he  drew  by  the  simple  method  he  followed. 
He  was  not  original  in  that  method  either. 
Do  we  not  read  that  when  "  Philip  went  down 
to  the  city  of  Samaria  and  preached  Christ 
unto  them,  the  people  .  .  .  gave  heed  unto 
those  things  which  Philip  spake." 

Of  course  they  gave  heed,  just  as  they  did 
to  Savonarola.  Recall  the  expression  of  the 
old  journalist  at  the  beginning  of  this  paper. 
He  would  never  have  been  bored  by  Philip 
or  by  the  Lombard  priest. 

Paul  got  the  attention  even  of  the  blase 
Athenians,  who  would  not  listen  to  anybody 
or  anything  very  long,  "  because  he  preached 
unto  them  of  Jesus  and  the  resurrection." 

And  you  will  remember  the  INI  aster's  ex- 
perience at  Capernaimi:  "And  straightway 
many  were  gathered  together,  insomuch  that 
there  was  no  room  to  receive  them,  no,  not  so 
much  as  about  the  door:  and  he  preached  the 
WORD  unto  them." 

That  reads  a  good  deal  like  the  description 
of  Savonarola's  congregations,  or  of  Wesley's, 
13  265 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

or  of  the  young  revivalist  in  Wales.  No  dif- 
ficulty about  their  audiences — or  congrega- 
tions, if  you  insist  on  being  technical. 

Of  course,  everybody  understands  that 
preaching  and  faith  and  all  that  is  not  every- 
thing that  the  young  minister  must  do  for  his 
fellow  man.  "  Faith  without  works  is  dead." 
Everybody  who  has  read  the  Bible  under- 
stands that. 

But  this  paper  is  on  "  The  Young  Man 
and  the  Pulpit " — an  attempt  to  give  him  an 
idea  of  how  the  people  he  is  going  to  preach 
to  look  at  this  matter,  how  they  regard  him, 
and,  above  all  else,  what  the  people  to  whom 
his  life  work  is  devoted  really  need  and  really 
want  above  everything  else  in  this  world. 

Don't  preach  woe,  punishment,  and  all 
mournfulness  to  the  people  all  the  time. 
Where  you  find  sin,  go  ahead  and  denounce 
it  mercilessly;  but  do  it  crisply,  cuttingly,  not 
dully  and  innocuously.  Speak  to  kill.  Do 
not  forget  that  the  INIaster  told  the  people 
of  His  day  that  they  "  were  a  generation  of 
vipers." 

But  that  was  not  the  burden  of  His  appeal. 
He  knew  that  there  were  other  things  in  the 
world  and  human  nature  besides  sin.  Mostly 
He   spoke   of   "  things   lovely   and   of  good 

266 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND    THE   PULPIT 

report."  Remember  that  His  coming  was  an- 
nounced as  a  bringing  of  "  good  tidings  of 
great  joy." 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  the  perfection 
of  thought,  feehng,  and  expression.  Make  it 
your  example.  You  will  recall  that  it  begins: 
"  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit."  It  is  full 
of  "  blessed  "  and  blessings,  of  consolations 
and  encouragements  and  loving  promises  of 
beautiful  certainties.  "  Ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world,"  He  said.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
radiates  sense  and  kindness  and  prayer. 

The  One  understood  that  most  glorious 
truth  of  all  truths — that  there  is  some  good 
in  each  of  us,  and  that  if  that  good  only  could 
be  recognized  and  encouraged  it  would  over- 
come the  bad  in  us.  You  will  remember  the 
saying:  "A  Uttle  leaven  leaveneth  the  whole 
lump." 

So  don't  be  an  orator  of  melancholy.  There 
is  enough  sadness  in  the  world  without  your 
adding  to  it  by  either  visage,  conduct,  or  ser- 
mon. Besides,  it  is  not  what  you  are  directed 
to  do.  The  people  would  be  very  glad  if  you 
could  say  with  Isaiah  that 

"  The  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach 
good  tidings  unto  the  meek;  ...  he  hath 
sent  me  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and 

267 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are 
bound;  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the 
Lord  ...  to  comfort  all  that  mourn  .  .  . 
to  give  unto  them  beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of 
joy  for  mourning,  the  garment  of  praise  for 
the  spirit  of  heaviness." 

That  is  the  kind  of  talk  that  will  cheer  the 
people,  and  it  is  the  kind  of  talk  that  will  do 
the  people  good.  There  is  nothing  "  blue  " 
about  that.  And  it  is  what  the  Book  bids 
you  tell  the  people.  The  people  want  it,  too, 
and  need  it — they  need  "  beauty  for  ashes,  the 
oil  of  joy  for  mom-ning,  the  garment  of  praise 
for  the  spirit  of  heaviness." 

Ah!  yes,  indeed,  that  is  worth  while.  Your 
pews  will  never  be  empty  if  such  be  the  fruit 
of  your  lips  and  the  ripeness  of  your  spirit. 
The  people  w^ant  to  hear  about  something 
better  than  they  know  or  have  known. 

"  How  beautiful  upon  the  mountains  are 
the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth  good  tidings." 

Nobody  likes  a  scold.  Of  course,  when  it  is 
necessary  to  scold,  go  ahead  and  scold.  But 
don't  make  scolding  a  practise.  Your  con- 
gregation will  not  stand  being  abused;  they 
will  not  stand  it  unless  they  actually  need  it, 
and  then  they  will  stand  it.  Unconsciously 
they  will  know  that  the  stripes  you  lay  upon 

268 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND    THE   PULPIT 

tliem  are  medicine  after  all,  and  for  their 
healing. 

But  ordinarily  everybody  has  such  a  hard 
time  that  they  would  like  to  hear  about  "  a 
good  time  coming."  Ordinarily  everybody  is 
so  tired  that  they  would  like  to  hear  some- 
thing like  this :  "  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that 
labor  and  are  heavy  laden  and  I  will  give 
you  rest." 

The  religion  which  you  preach  owes  its 
vitality  to  the  glorious  hopefulness  of  it.  The 
people  want  to  know  that  if  they  do  well  here 
joy  awaits  them  hereafter,  and  here,  too,  if 
possible.  They  want  to  hear  about  the 
"  Father's  house  "  that  has  "  many  mansions," 
and  about  Him  who  has  "  gone  to  prepare  a 
place  "  for  them. 

They  demand  happiness  in  some  form,  if 
only  in  talk.  If  they  do  not  get  it  in  the  as- 
siu-ances  of  religion,  who  can  blame  them  if 
they  say:  "Let  us  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry, 
for  to-morrow  we  die."  For  sm*e  enough  they 
do  die  to-morrow,  so  far  as  their  world  goes. 

If  you  do  not  believe  that  religion  means 
happiness,  quit  the  pulpit  and  raise  potatoes. 
Potatoes  feed  the  body  at  least.  But  unfaith- 
ful words  or  speech  of  needless  despair  feed 
nothing   at   all.      It   is   "  east   wind."     Put 

269 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

beauty,  hope,  joy,  into  your  preaching,  there- 
fore. Make  your  Hsteners  thrill  with  gladness 
that  they  are  Christians.  Even  the  men  of  the 
world  have  wisdom  enough  to  make  things 
profane  as  attractive  as  possible. 

Note,  for  example,  that  most  successful 
books  are  hopeful  books  that  tell  of  the  beau- 
tiful things  of  human  life  and  character. 
Especially  is  this  true  of  novels,  the  most 
widely  read  of  all  books  of  transient  modern 
literature.  The  hero  always  wins — virtue  al- 
ways triimiphs.  There  are  remarkable  excep- 
tions no  doubt — but  they  are  exceptions.  Now 
and  then  there  are  remarkable  novels  which 
scourge  with  the  whips  of  the  Furies,  as  in- 
deed most  of  Savonarola's  sermons  flagellated. 

With  all  your  faith  and  the  fervor  of  it,  be 
full  of  thought.  ]Merely  to  believe  burningly 
is  not  enough.  Nobody  will  listen  to  you  de- 
claim the  confession  and  then  declaim  it  over 
and  over  again  and  nothing  more.  Even  pious 
monotony  palls.  Bread  is  the  staff  of  life; 
and  yet  too  much  bread  eaten  at  one  time  will 
kill.     Food,  taken  in  excess,  becomes  poison. 

I  have  emphasized  the  necessity  for  faith 
because  it  will  always  be  the  very  soul  of  your 
influence  over  your  audience.  It  is  the  power 
behind  your  ideas.     Faith  is  the  djaiamics  of 

270 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE   PULPIT 

truth.  But  do  not  forget  that  you  have  got 
to  have  ideas.    You  have  got  to  have  truth. 

In  every  word  you  utter  you  must  be  a 
teacher. 

After  all,  teaching  is  the  only  oratory.  Luke 
says  of  the  Master  that  "  he  taught  the  peo- 
ple." In  reporting  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
Matthew  says  that  "  he  opened  his  mouth 
and  taught  them."  Time  and  again  I  have 
heard  hard-headed  business  men  and  sturdy 
farmers  say  of  a  particularly  instructive  ser- 
mon: "  I  like  to  hear  that  preacher;  I  always 
learn  something  from  him." 

And  let  your  discourse  be  full  of  "  sweet 
reasonableness."  Peter  tells  you  "  to  be  ready 
always  to  give  an  answer  to  every  man  that 
asketh  you  a  reason  for  the  hope  that  is  within 
you,"  although  Peter  himself  seldom  gave  a 
reason  for  anything. 

You  cannot  do  this  without  study.  "After 
you  have  shot  off  a  gun  you  have  got  to  load 
it  before  you  can  shoot  it  off  again,"  said  a 
wise  old  preacher  who  retained  the  hold  of  his 
youth  upon  his  congregations.  Never  cease 
to  renew  yourself  from  every  possible  source 
of  thought  and  knowledge. 

Books,  society,  solitude,  the  woods,  the 
crowded    streets — all    things    in    this    varied 

271 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

universe  have  in  them  replenishings  for  your 
mind.  Don't  become  burnt  powder.  Keep 
young.  That  is  your  problem  and  Hfe's.  For 
mind  and  soul  that  is  no  hard  problem,  after 
all. 

Don't  repeat  your  sermons  if  you  can  help 
it.  That  is  hard  advice,  I  know ;  but  to  repeat 
your  sermons  is  a  phase  of  arrested  develop- 
ment and  a  method  of  bringing  it  about.  It 
is  unfortunate  for  you  that  things  are  so  or- 
dered that  you  must  preach  a  new  sermon 
every  Sunday. 

The  Saviour  did  not  do  it,  nor  did  any  of 
his  personal  followers.  They  taught  when 
"  the  spirit  moved  them."  I  think  none  of  the 
great  preachers  ever  spoke  with  machine-like 
periodicity — certainly  Savonarola  did  not.  He 
j)reached  only  when  occasion  demanded  it. 

But  that  is  neither  here  nor  there.  Preach- 
ing every  Sunday  is  our  custom  and  therefore 
preach  every  Sunday  you  must.  I  repeat  that 
it  is  hard  on  you,  and  we  sympathize  with  you ; 
but,  as  a  practical  matter,  it  is  all  the  more  rea- 
son why  you  should  ceaselessly  fertilize  your  in- 
tellect. Your  audience  will  pity  you,  but  they 
are  not  going  to  listen  to  any  twice-told  tales, 
pity  or  no  pity. 

The  practise  of  having  short  sermons  helps 
272 


THE    YOUNG  MAN   AND    THE   PULPIT 

you  out.  I  beseech  you,  as  you  wish  to  hold 
your  hearers,  observe  this  practise.  Please  re- 
member that  this  is  America  and  everybody 
is  in  a  hurry.  They  ought  not  to  be,  but  they 
are.  ]Make  thirty  minutes  the  limit  of  your 
time.     Twenty  minutes  is  long  enough. 

It  was  a  very  good  sermon  Paul  preached 
on  Mars  Hill  before  the  most  critical  and  cul- 
tured audience  in  the  world.  And  still,  allow- 
ing for  all  deliberation  of  delivery  and  for 
portions  of  his  speech  which  are  not  reported, 
it  could  not  have  taken  him  longer  than  fifteen 
minutes. 

Even  the  Master,  when  expounding  the 
whole  of  the  Christian  religion  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  INIount,  could  not  have  occupied  more 
than  half  or  three-quarters  of  an  hour;  yet  he 
was  covering  a  multitude  of  subjects,  whereas 
Paul  covered  but  one.  Indeed,  the  Saviour 
also  made  it  a  practise  to  speak  upon  only  one 
subject  at  a  time. 

The  same  is  true  of  all  great  orators  except, 
of  course,  political  stump  speakers,  who  nec- 
essarily must  cover  all  the  "  issues."  The 
political  speaker  is  sorry  enough  that  this  is 
true— but  there  is  no  help  for  it;  "the  ques- 
tions of  the  day  "  must  all  be  answered.  But 
you,  JNIr.  Preacher,  need  not  be  so  encyclo- 

273 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

pedic;  and  you  ought  to  be  illuminating  and 
uplifting  on  one  subject  in  half  an  hour — and 
no  longer.  That  light  is  brightest  which  is 
condensed. 

The  Christian  religion  is  a  livable  creed,  is 
it  not?  It  is  a  day -by-day  rehgion ;  a  here-and- 
now  religion.  True,  it  comprehends  eternity, 
and  its  perfect  flower  is  immortal  life  and 
peace.  But  that  is  for  the  hereafter.  This 
side  of  the  grave,  Christianity  is  a  code  of 
conduct.  So,  peculiarly  human  subjects  for 
your  sermons  are  endless — subjects  of  present 
interest. 

Think  of  the  intimate  and  personal  subjects 
of  Christ's  teachings.  He  spoke  of  prayer 
and  the  fulfilment  of  the  law,  of  master  and 
servant  and  of  practical  charity,  of  marriage, 
divorce,  and  the  relation  of  children  to  parents ; 
of  manners,  serenity,  and  battlings;  of  work- 
ing and  food  and  prophecy;  of  trade  and 
usury,  of  sin  and  righteousness,  of  repentance 
and  salvation.  Yet  by  means  of  all  this  he 
made  noble  the  daily  living  of  our  earthly  lives 
and  gloriously  triumphant  the  ending  of  them. 

Speak  helpfully  therefore.  Remember  that 
the  great  problem  with  each  of  us  is  how  to 
live  day  by  day;  and  that  is  no  easy  task, 
say  what  you  will.    This  human  talking  with 

274 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND    THE   PULPIT 

human  beings  is  not  only  consistent  with  the 
preaching  of  your  rehgion — it  is  the  preaching 
of  your  rehgion.  Christ  came  to  save  sinners, 
but  how?  By  faith?  Yes.  By  repentance? 
Yes.  By  these  and  by  many  other  things ;  but 
by  conduct  also. 

I  do  not  think  the  ordinary  layman  cares  to 
hear  you  preach  about  some  new  thing.  The 
common  man  prefers  to  hear  the  old  tiniths 
retold.  Indeed,  there  can  be  nothing  new  in 
morals.  *'  Our  task,"  said  a  clear-headed  min- 
ister, "  is  to  state  the  old  truths  in  terms  of  the 
present  day."  That  is  admirably  put.  In 
science  progress  means  change;  in  morals 
progress  means  stability.  No  man  can  be  said 
to  have  uttered  the  final  word  in  science;  but 
the  Master  uttered  the  final  word  in  morals. 

^lany  people  greatly  debate  whether  the 
minister  of  the  Gospel  should  "  mix  up  in 
politics."  There  is  a  protest  against  ministers 
using  their  pulpits  to  express  views  on  our 
civic  and  National  life. 

I  have  no  sympathy  with  such  views.  Of 
course  the  preaching  of  his  holy  rehgion  is 
the  minister's  high  calling ;  of  course  the  spirit- 
ual life  practically  applied  should  receive  his 
exclusive  attention.  But  does  not  that  include 
righteousness  in  the  affairs  of  oui*  popular 

275 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

government?    Does  it  not  involve  uprightness 
in  public  life? 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  Master  took  a  con- 
siderable part  in  public  aiFairs.  Did  he  not 
even  scourge  the  money-changers  from  the 
Temple?  And  John  Knox,  Wesley,  and  other 
great  teachers  of  the  Word  profoundly  in- 
fluenced the  political  life  and  movements  of 
their  time.  Savonarola,  to  whom  I  have  so 
often  referred,  was  a  skilled  politician,  though 
of  so  high  a  grade  that  he  may  be  justly  called 
a  statesman. 

Upon  this  subject  the  views  of  the  ordinary 
laymen  of  the  country  are  these:  Whenever  a 
civic  evil  is  to  be  eliminated  it  is  not  only  ap- 
propriate, but  it  is  the  office  of  the  minister 
to  help  eliminate  it.  Whenever  the  cause  of 
light  is  struggling  with  the  powers  of  darkness 
the  place  of  the  Christian  minister  is  in  the 
ranks. 

But  as  a  general  proposition  he  can  do  most 
good  by  merely  preaching  individual  right- 
eousness day  after  day  without  definitely  inter- 
fering with  things  political.  For  there  is  al- 
ways the  danger  that  if  he  takes  part  in  many 
political  agitations  he  will  become  so  monoto- 
nous that  all  his  power  for  good  will  be  dis- 
sipated. 

276 


THE    YOUNG  MAN   AND    THE   PULPIT 

But  after  all  is  said  and  done  the  millions 
want  from  the  modern  pulpit  the  fruitful 
teaching  of  the  Christian  religion.  They  want 
the  fundamentals.  They  want  decision  and 
certainty.  Their  minds  are  to  be  convinced, 
yes,  but  even  more  their  hearts. 

This  is  the  task  that  awaits  you,  young  man, 
who,  from  that  spiritual  tribune  called  the  Pul- 
pit, are  soon  to  speak  to  us  who  sit  beneath 
you  that  Word  which  is  for  "  the  healing  of 
the  nations."  How  exalted  beyond  under- 
standing is  this  high  place  to  which  you  are 
going.  What  a  hearing  jou  will  have  if  only 
you  will  utter  words  of  power  and  light.  Be- 
lieve me,  the  world  with  eagerness  awaits  your 
message.  But  be  sure  it  is  a  message  in  very 
truth — no,  not  a  message  but  the  message. 


277 


VIII 

GREAT   THINGS   YET   TO   BE  DONE 

Some  four  years  ago  a  young  man  of  im- 
common  ability,  but  lacking  the  imagination 
of  hope,  said  to  me  that  it  seemed  to  him  as 
if  everything  great  had  already  been  done. 

"  Great  battles,"  said  he,  "  have  been  fought; 
there  will  be  no  more  wars  of  magnitude.  The 
great  principles  of  the  law  have  all  been  an- 
nounced and  applied  to  every  conceivable  form 
of  human  rights  and  controversy.  For  ex- 
ample, in  our  own  country  there  will  be  no 
more  new  and  great  constitutional  arguments. 
Everything,  from  now  on,  will  be  only  an 
application  of  what  has  already  been  said  and 
decided. 

"  In  invention,  there  may  be  some  improve- 
ments on  old  and  present  devices,  but  there 
will  be  no  more  Edisons,  no  more  Marconis. 
In  medicine,  we  are  about  at  the  top  of  the 
mountain.  In  literature,  the  creative  and  fun- 
damental things  have  all  been  done.  There 
will  be  no  more   Shakespeares,  no  Miltons, 

278 


CHEAT   THINGS    YET   TO   BE   DONE 

no  Dantes,  no  Goethes.  Even  Hugo  is  dead. 
From  now  on  books  will  be  mere  second- 
hand talk. 

"  In  statesmanship,  nothing  is  left  except 
that  common  housekeeping  which  we  call  ad- 
ministering government.  In  diplomacy,  the 
same  old  lies  will  continue  to  be  told,  and 
so  on." 

This  young  man's  profoundly  melancholy 
view  of  life  is  that  which  I  have  found  crush- 
ing the  elan  out  of  many  young  men ;  and  par- 
ticularly college  students.  In  their  hearts  they 
feel  that  progress  is  finished,  so  far  as  indi- 
vidual effort  by  them  is  concerned.  They  feel 
that  for  them  there  is  nothing  but  to  eat,  sleep, 
laugh,  grieve  and  go  to  their  graves.  They 
feel  that  for  them  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
leaving  behind  them  a  monument  of  their  own 
constructive  effort.  Talk  to  most  young  men 
in  college  or  school,  and  you  will  find  this 
feeling,  like  a  pathetic  minor  chord,  running 
through  their  highest  and  most  daring  boasts. 

Is  not  our  college  training  responsible  for 
some  of  this  melancholy  negativeness  of  life? 
However  it  happens,  the  truth  is  that  too  few 
young  men  come  out  of  our  great  universities 
with  the  greater  part  of  the  boldness  of  youth 
left  in  them.     Somehow  or  other  those  fine, 

279 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

and,  if  you  will,  absurd  enthusiasms  which  no- 
body but  young  men  and  geniuses  are  blessed 
with,  have  been  educated  out  of  the  graduate. 
How  many  seniors  in  our  historic  American 
universities  would  not  have  sneered  John  Bun- 
yan  out  of  existence,  or  have  told  the  young 
and  unripe  Bonaparte  how  presumptuous  he 
was  to  think  of  fighting  the  trained  generals 
of  Europe? 

"  Yes,"  says  a  certain  type  of  young  man, 
"  all  the  great  things  have  been  done.  Noth- 
ing is  left  for  me  but  the  commonplaces." 
This  is  not  true. 

The  great  things  have  not  all  been  done; 
scarcely  have  they  been  commenced.  "  There 
is  more  before  us  than  there  is  behind  us,"  said 
my  old  forest  "  guide,"  wise  with  the  wisdom 
of  the  woods  and  their  thoughtful  silences. 
And  the  purpose  of  this  paper  is  to  point  out 
the  infinite  number  of  practical  possibilities 
immediately  at  hand;  to  awaken  each  young 
man  who  reads  these  words  to  some  one  of  the 
million  voices  which  from  all  the  fields  of  hu- 
man endeavor  is  calling  him ;  and  so,  by  show- 
ing him  things  to  do,  make  him  a  doer  of 
things,  if  he  will. 

Let  us  take  the  law — that  entrancing  sub- 
ject which  exercises  such  an  empire  over  the 

280 


GREAT   THINGS    YET   TO   BE   DONE 

minds  of  most  young  men.  Our  own  consti- 
tutional law  is  only  a  part  of  that  universal 
body  of  jurisprudence  with  which  all  real 
lawyers  must  deal.  Very  well;  we  have  only 
begun  the  discussion  and  settlement  of  our 
great  constitutional  questions.  Marshall  and 
Hamilton,  it  is  true,  when  they  formulated 
the  doctrine  of  imjilied  powers,  seemed  to  un- 
lock the  door  of  all  constitutional  difficulties, 
leaving  nothing  for  future  lawyers  and  jurists 
to  do  but  to  find  their  way  through  the  chan- 
nels and  passages  thus  opened. 

But  it  was  only  one  great  field  to  which  they 
laid  down  the  bars.  Others  equally  large — 
yes,  larger — lie  beyond  it.  It  is  generally  ad- 
mitted now  by  all  thorough  students  of  the 
Constitution  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  con- 
stitutional progress — constitutional  develop- 
ment. The  Constitution  does  and  will  grow  as 
the  American  people  grow. 

Half  a  dozen  questions  are  now  in  the  pub- 
lic mind  that  measure,  in  importance,  up  to  the 
level  of  Marshall's  elementary  decisions.  Be- 
yond these  is  still  the  application  of  institu- 
tional law  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Consti- 
tution. There  is  no  book  so  much  needed  in 
the  present,  or  that  will  be  so  much  needed 
in  the  future,  as  a  great  work  on  our  institu- 
19  281 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

tional  law — such  a  work  as  the  world  sees 
once  in  a  century. 

Consider  this  one  phase  of  jurisprudence  for 
only  a  moment,  young  man,  just  to  see  what 
a  world  of  thought  it  opens  to  the  mind.  In- 
stitutional law  is  older,  deeper,  and  even  more 
vital  than  constitutional  law.  Our  Constitu- 
tion is  one  of  the  concrete  manifestations  of 
our  institutions;  our  statutes  are  another;  the 
decisions  of  our  courts  are  another ;  our  habits, 
methods,  and  customs  as  a  people  and  a  race 
are  still  another. 

Our  institutional  law  is  like  the  atmosphere 
— impalpable,  imperceptible,  but  all-perva- 
ding, and  the  source  of  life  itself.  Most  lead- 
ing decisions  of  our  courts  of  last  resort,  in- 
volving great  constitutional  questions,  refer  to 
the  spirit  of  oui*  institutions  as  interpreting  our 
Constitution.  It  is  our  institutional  law  which, 
flowing  like  our  blood  through  the  written  Con- 
stitution, gives  that  instrument  vitality  and 
power  of  development. 

Institutional  law  existed  before  the  Consti- 
tution. Our  institutions  had  their  beginnings 
well-nigh  with  the  beginning  of  time.  They 
have  developed  through  the  ages.  Magna 
Charta  only  marked  a  period  in  their  growth; 
the  assertion  of  the  rights  of  the  Commons 

282 


GREAT   THINGS    YET   TO   BE   DONE 

marked  another;  our  Revolution  marked  an- 
other ;  the  adoption  of  our  Constitution  marked 
another  still. 

I  have  no  respect  for  constitutional  learning 
which  deals  alone  with  the  written  words  of 
the  Constitution,  or  even  with  the  intention  of 
its  framers,  and  ignores  the  sources  and  spirit 
of  that  great  instrument.  The  Constitution 
did  not  give  us  free  institutions;  free  institu- 
tions gave  us  our  Constitution.  All  our  prog- 
ress toward  liberty  and  popular  government, 
made  since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
has  been  the  spirit  of  our  institutions  working 
out  its  sure  results,  through  the  Constitution 
when  possible,  modifying  it  when  necessary. 

Jefferson  wrote  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence a  denunciation  of  slavery,  and  called 
it  an  "  execrable  commerce."  It  was  stricken 
out  at  the  request  of  Georgia  and  South  Caro- 
lina, and  years  afterward  slavery  was  recog- 
nized in  our  Constitution. 

But  slavery  was  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  our 
institutions,  and  while  legalized  by  our  Con- 
stitution and  defended  by  armies  as  brave  as 
ever  marched  to  battle,  constitutional  slavery 
went  down  before  institutional  liberty;  and 
Appomattox  was  the  capitulation  of  the  word 
of  death  in  our  Constitution  to  the  spirit  of 

283 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

life  in  our  institutions.  Every  amendment  of 
our  Constitution  marks  the  progress  of  our 
institutions. 

The  Constitution  contemplated  and  pro- 
vided for  the  election  of  Presidents  by  elec- 
tors, who  should  select  the  best  man  to  preside 
over  the  Republic,  irrespective  of  the  people's 
choice.  That  was  the  intention  of  the  fathers. 
But  in  that  they  did  not  correctly  interpret  the 
spirit  and  tendency  of  our  institutions,  which 
is  toward  getting  the  Government  as  close  to 
the  people  as  possible. 

And  so,  in  spite  of  the  Constitution,  in  spite 
of  the  intention  of  the  fathers,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  this  plan  was  pursued  for  several 
elections,  the  spirit  of  our  institutions  pre- 
vailed over  our  Constitution,  and  no  presi- 
dential elector  now  dare  cast  his  ballot  against 
the  candidate  for  whom  the  people  instruct 
him  to  vote. 

Even  outside  of  the  doctrine  of  implied 
powers  by  which  our  written  Constitution  has 
been  made  to  meet  many  of  the  emergencies 
of  our  history,  there  are  important  things  in  our 
National  life  that  have  all  the  force  of  organic 
law  which  are  unprovided  for  by  the  Constitu- 
tion. For  example,  the  Constitution  does  not 
say  that  a  congressman  must  live  in  the  dis- 

284 


GREAT   THINGS    YET   TO   BE   DONE 

trict  which  he  represents.  So  far  as  constitu- 
tional law  is  concerned,  he  might  live  any- 
where. But  no  matter— our  institutional  law 
settles  that.  The  theoiy  of  local  self-govern- 
ment requires  the  representative  of  a  locality 
to  live  in  that  locality. 

JWherever  our  Constitution  has  been  weak 
and  insufficient  in  its  apparent  expressed  pow- 
ers, the  spirit  of  our  institutions  has  given 
it  life.  Read  JNIarshall's  opinions;  read  most 
of  our  great  constitutional  decisions;  read 
the  whole  history  of  American  constitutional 
progress,  if  you  would  know  the  beneficent 
influence  of  our  institutions  on  our  Consti- 
tution. 

Thus  we  see  that  our  institutions  are  the 
preservers  of  our  Constitution.  The  doctrine 
of  implied  powers,  which  has  saved  the  coun- 
try and  the  Constitution  too,  has  been  made 
possible  only  by  reading  our  Constitution  by 
the  light  of  our  institutions,  as  Hamilton  and 
Marshall  did. 

And  so  our  security  is  not  in  the  written 
word  of  the  Constitution  alone;  it  is  there,  of 
course,  but  it  is  in  our  institutions  also  which 
are  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  which  illu- 
mine and  emphasize  the  meaning  of  that  noble 
instrument.     England  has  no  written  consti- 

285 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

tution;  certain  other  countries  have  had  and 
have  now  ideal  written  constitutions. 

And  yet  England  has  steady  and  contin- 
uous liberty  and  law,  while  those  others,  even 
with  written  constitutions,  frequently  have  had 
bureaucracy  and  military  absolutism.  They 
had  the  forms  of  liberty  and  popular  govern- 
ment in  these  written  constitutions,  but  they  did 
not  have  free  institutions,  which  alone  make 
formal  constitutions  living  and  vital  things. 

England,  without  a  written  constitution,  is 
almost  as  free  a  government  as  ours.  Law 
reigns  supreme.  The  poorest  gatherer  of  rags 
has  equal  rights  before  the  bar  of  justice 
with  belted  earl  or  millionaire,  and  those 
equal  rights  are  impartially  enforced.  Neither 
wealth  nor  title  are  favored  more  than  poverty 
or  humble  rank  in  the  courts  of  England;  and 
even  royalty  appears  as  witness,  the  same  as 
his  meanest  subject. 

The  Government  itself  is  subject  to  the  will 
of  the  people;  and  no  ministry  remains  in 
power  in  face  of  an  adverse  majority,  or  forces 
into  law  an  act  of  which  the  people  disapprove. 
The  English  Parliament  goes  to  the  people 
as  often  as  the  Government,  in  any  of  its  pro- 
posed measures,  fails  of  a  majority.  The  suf- 
frage is  constantly  enlarging,  and  the  rights 

286 


GREAT   THINGS    YET   TO   BE   DONE 

of  labor  are  almost  as  carefully  guarded  by 
the  laws  of  England  as  by  ours. 

England's  treatment  of  Ireland  has  been 
harsh,  severe,  unjust;  and  yet  even  there  the 
spirit  of  a  larger  liberty  in  the  interest  of  the 
Irish  tenant,  approaching  state  socialism,  com- 
pels the  landlord  to  sell  his  land  whether  he 
wants  to  or  not,  at  a  price  fixed  by  others  than 
himself,  and  enables  the  tenant  to  buy  the 
land  by  the  payment  of  his  rent.  Tolerance, 
justice,  and  individual  liberty  are  daily  devel- 
oping throughout  the  British  Empire,  instead 
of  diminishing. 

And  yet  England  has  no  written  constitu- 
tion. But  she  has  institutions,  free  institu- 
tions, institutions  similar  to  those  we  have  here 
in  America.  It  is  the  free  institutions  of  Eng- 
land that  preserve  and  increase  the  liberty  of 
Englishmen,  and  diminish  and  destroy  the  au- 
thority of  the  monarch,  who  is  now  only  the 
personification  of  the  nation,  the  emblem  of  the 
Empire. 

It  is  England's  free  institutions  that,  in 
Egypt,  in  Hongkong,  in  Ceylon,  in  the  Malay 
states,  in  India,  have  given  the  people  of 
those  dark  places  some  of  the  fruits  of  liberty 
to  eat  for  the  first  time  in  all  the  strange  his- 
tory of  the  oppressed  and  wasted  Orient.    And 

287 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

it  is  our  free  institutions,  as  well  as  our  Con- 
stitution, that  in  America  make  kings  impos- 
sible, and  have,  for  a  hundred  years,  wrought 
for  a  larger  liberty  and  a  more  popular  gov- 
ernment. 

And  it  is  the  spirit  of  our  institutions,  as 
well  as  our  Constitution,  that  will  prevent  the 
abuse  of  power  by  American  authority  in 
Porto  Rico,  Hawaii,  the  Philippines,  or  any 
other  spot  blessed  by  the  protection  of  our 
flag.  It  is  our  free  institutions,  working  now 
by  one  method  and  now  by  another,  after 
the  fashion  of  our  practical  race,  that  are  es- 
tablishing order,  equal  laws,  free  speech,  un- 
purchasable  justice,  and  "  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness  "  throughout  our  ocean 
possessions. 

It  is  our  institutional  law,  therefore,  of 
which  men  should  inquire  who  would  know  the 
meaning  and  the  life  of  our  constitutional 
law.  We  have  heard  from  lawyer  and  orator 
of  "  the  Constitution,"  "  the  letter  of  the  Con- 
stitution," etc. ;  we  have  listened  for  "  our 
institutions,"  and  in  vain.  And  yet,  is  it  not 
written  that  "  the  letter  killeth,  but  the  spirit 
giveth  Hfe"? 

Is  it  not  written  that  "  man  shall  not  live 
by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  pro- 

288 


i 


GREAT   THINGS    YET   TO   BE   DONE 

ceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God  "?  I  respect 
not  the  expounders  of  constitutional  law  who 
have  not  learned  the  history  of  our  institutions, 
of  which  the  Constitution  is  the  richest  fruit, 
until  that  history  is  a  part  of  their  being. 

I  respect  not  that  constitutional  charlatan- 
ism that  fastens  its  eye  on  the  printed  page 
alone,  disdains  our  institutions  as  interpreting 
it,  and  refuses  to  consider  the  sources  of  that 
Constitution — the  development  of  our  present 
form  of  government  for  a  century  and  a  half 
from  the  old  crown  charters;  the  English 
struggle  for  the  rights  of  man,  regulated  by 
equal  laws  which  preceded  that;  the  spirit  of 
Dutch  independence,  Dutch  federation,  and 
Dutch  institutions  working  upon  that,  and 
still  back  to  the  counsels  of  our  Teuton  fathers 
in  the  German  forests  in  the  dim  light  of  a 
far  distant  time. 

If  a  people  adopt  a  written  instrument,  you 
must  understand  that  people  and  their  in- 
stitutions before  you  understand  the  writing. 
You  cannot  separate  a  people  and  their  his- 
tory from  a  written  constitution  which  is  only 
a  part  of  that  history.  The  same  words  by 
one  people  may  have  a  different  meaning  used 
by  another  people.  Any  writing  can  only  be 
an  index  to  the  institutions  of  a  people. 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

A  people's  institutions  are  the  soul  of  the 
written  and  unwritten  law.  You  must  under- 
stand the  French  people,  their  history,  and 
their  institutions,  before  you  can  understand 
their  written  constitution.  You  must  under- 
stand the  American  people,  our  history,  and 
our  institutions,  before  you  can  understand  our 
Constitution. 

I  have  thus  enlarged  upon  our  institutional 
law  to  give  young  men  a  hint  of  its  possibili- 
ties. Before  this  century  closes,  the  greatest 
law  book  in  all  the  literature  of  jurisprudence 
will  be  produced  upon  the  subject  of  our  in- 
stitutional law.  The  materials  are  as  plentiful 
as  the  history  of  our  race,  the  demand  as  insis- 
tent as  our  daily  life. 

Great  law  books  all  written!  Nonsense.  As 
yet  we  have  had  only  the  turgid  descriptions 
of  the  toilsome  and  halting  progress  of  jus- 
tice through  the  ages — that  is  all  we  have  had, 
compared  with  the  noble  volume  that  will  be 
written,  giving  mankind  the  high,  clear,  and 
simple  thinking  of  a  greater  Blackstone  and 
a  wiser  Kent.  It  may  be  that  this  generation 
will  produce  this  immortal  judicial  author;  it 
may  be  that  you,  young  man,  are  he.  At  least 
one  thing  is  sure — the  work  is  there  waiting 
for  the  workman. 

290 


GREAT   THINGS    YET   TO   BE   DONE 

But  if  you  do  not  feel  equipped  for  this 
monumental  effort,  there  are  other  phases  of 
the  law  more  imminent,  if  not  so  comprehen- 
sive, in  each  of  which  there  is  opportunity 
and  demand  for  original  work. 

For  example,  it  is  clear  to  all  that  the 
laws  of  marriage  and  divorce  must  be  made 
rational  and  uniform  throughout  the  Nation; 
that  the  laws  respecting  corporations  are  in- 
appropriate, inadequate,  and  unjust,  both  to 
corporations  and  to  the  public — that  they  do 
not  measure  up  to  the  present  complex  condi- 
tions; that  the  laws  respecting  commercial  pa- 
per need  to  be  systematized. 

It  is  absurd,  too,  that  a  farmer  living  on 
one  side  of  an  imaginary  state  line  which 
separates  his  farm  and  the  state  in  which  it 
is  located  from  that  of  his  neighbor  living  on 
the  other  side  of  the  imaginary  line  in  another 
state,  should  have  to  deal  with  his  neighbor 
as  if  he  were  a  foreigner  in  a  foreign  land 
and  under  foreign  laws. 

Again,  the  multiplication  of  decisions  on 
all  subjects  has  reached  a  j)oint  where  prac- 
tise by  precedent,  to  be  exhaustive  and  thor- 
ough, has  become  practically  impossible;  and 
so  the  problem  that  confronted  the  Roman 
emperors,  and  terminated  in  the  Pandects  of 

291 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

Justinian,  is  now  demanding  immediate  solu- 
tion at  the  hands  of  American  legislators,  law- 
yers, and  jurists. 

So,  you  see,  my  ambitious  young  friend, 
that  by  no  means  all  has  been  done  in  the 
law,  and  that  what  has  been  done  is  so  bulky, 
unorganized,  and  confused,  that  even  to  re- 
duce, rationalize,  and  systematize  it  is  the 
greatest  task  of  all.  The  trouble  will  there- 
fore be  with  yourself,  and  not  with  condi- 
tions, if  you  remain  an  underling  in  this  great 
profession. 

Take  literature — take  imaginative  litera- 
ture. More  can  be  said  on  its  possibilities  than 
on  those  of  the  law — and  I  enlarged  upon  the 
unexplored  fields  of  the  law  merely  to  outline 
the  immensity  of  the  great  things  yet  to  be 
done  in  the  law's  domain.  Is  it  not  plain  that 
the  great  novel  of  modern  society  is  yet  to  be 
written?  The  contest  between  human  nature 
and  the  complex  machinery  of  our  industrial 
system,  and  the  mastery  of  human  nature  over 
the  latter,  present  a  theme  such  as  Homer,  or 
Vergil,  or  Dante  never  had. 

The  world  awaits  this  genius!  If  you  are 
not  he,  but  talented  in  that  direction,  there 
are  a  thousand  phases  of  American  life  that 
are   of  permanent  historic   value,   which   are 

292 


GREAT   THINGS    YET   TO   BE   DONE 

rapidly  passing  away  forever,  and  need  to  be 
perpetuated  by  literature  and  art. 

In  poetry,  the  master  singer  of  modern  days 
has  not  yet  appeared.  There  have  been  faint 
signs  of  him,  a  suggestion  of  him,  an  indistinct 
prophecy  of  him,  in  nearly  all  of  the  world's 
singers  for  a  hundred  years.  Some  day  he  will 
come.  It  may  be  soon,  and  then  he  will  sound 
that  note  which  shall  again  thrill  the  hearts  and 
again  turn  heavenward  the  eyes  of  men  all 
round  the  world. 

The  point  I  am  making  is  that  the  great 
things  in  poetry  have  not  all  been  done.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  the  same  old  cry  the  world 
has  heard  since  Homer.  Until  Shakespeare 
wrote,  it  appeared,  to  those  who  had  no  vision, 
that  the  immortal  things  in  literature  had  all 
been  done.  But  these  immortal  things  and 
things  not  immortal,  things  permanent  and 
things  temporary,  were  only  food  and  ma- 
terial for  Shakespeare. 

Literature,  then,  has  only  been  furnishing 
the  materials — the  timber — for  the  structure 
that  is  yet  to  be  built.  But  the  timber  is 
noble  in  dimension,  and  they  must  be  giants 
who  use  it.  If  you  are  a  giant,  your  task 
awaits  you. 

"It  is  nonsense  to  talk  of  any  great  war 
293 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

in  which  this  country  will  ever  be  engaged," 
said  a  wise  and  experienced  public  man  to  me 
one  day,  in  discussing  our  future.  "  There  is 
no  place  in  the  world  for  distinguished  service 
by  an  American  soldier.  He  can  wear  his  uni- 
form; he  can  study  his  tactics;  he  can  be  a 
warrior  of  the  ball-room;  but,  after  all,  he  is 
only  a  kind  of  policeman." 

This  conversation  occurred  some  years  ago. 
The  fallacy  of  this  conservative  (shall  we  not 
say  short-sighted,  for  sometimes  they  are  mis- 
taken for  one  another)  man's  conclusion  has 
been  revealed  by  recent  events.  And  these 
events  are  only  an  index  of  similar- possibilities. 
Not  that  we  want  war ;  not  that  it  is  desirable ; 
not  that  it  should  not  be  avoided,  if  possible ;  but 
that  the  movement  of  the  pawns  by  EfVents 
on  the  great  chess-board  of  the  world  and  his- 
tory may  force  us  to  war,  no  matter  how  un- 
willingly. 

It  may  be  that  in  the  ultimate  outcome,  to 
use  a  double  superlative,  "  a  parliament  of 
man  and  federation  of  the  world "  will  be 
established  which  shall  divide  and  distribute 
commerce  as  railroads  are  now  said  to  agree  on 
division  of  business  and  equality  of  rates. 

But  before  such  a  noble  condition  arises 
there  will  surely  be  vast  and  destructive  con- 

294 


GREAT   THINGS    YET    TO    BE   DONE 

flicts,  unless  the  temper,  nature,  and  attitude 
of  men  and  nations  change;  and,  if  they  do 
occur,  no  one  but  a  fanatic  of  reaction  imag- 
ines for  one  instant  that  we  shall  be  able  to 
keep  out  of  them. 

So  that  not  all  the  battles  have  been  fought, 
not  all  the  strategy  thought  out.  And  if  you 
are  a  soldier  and  mean  business,  you  need  not 
despair  of  the  possibility  of  winning  one  of 
the  highest  of  honors  given  man  to  win — the 
honor  of  fighting  for  your  country  and  of 
d^ang  for  3^our  flag. 

The  Russo-Japanese  War  has  demonstrated 
that  military  science  is  as  much  more  complex 
and  difficult  to-day  than  during  our  Civil  War, 
as  it  was  then  more  complicated  than  in  the 
time  of  battle-ax  and  lance.  The  recent  con- 
flict in  Asia  shows  that  it  is  as  important  to 
get  wounded  men  cured  and  back  on  the  firin-g 
line  as  it  is  to  punish  the  other  side.  A  nation 
that  would  now  enter  into  armed  conflict  with- 
out a  general  staff  or  some  similar  body  of  men 
would  be  hurling  its  soldiers,  however  brave, 
to  certain  death. 

And  yet  Von  Moltke,  Germany's  greatest 
captain,  originated  the  modern  general  staff; 
and  the  United  States,  with  all  of  our  Ameri- 
can progressiveness,  had  no  general  staff  at  all 

295 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

until  Secretary  Root  prevailed  upon  Congress 
to  provide  one.  These  general  staffs  plan, 
during  the  long  years  of  peace,  every  possible 
conflict.  They  map  out  with  absolute  accuracy 
every  imaginable  field  of  operations  in  the 
country  of  every  possible  enemy;  they  equip 
the  general  in  the  field  with  information  on 
all  subjects,  perfect  to  the  smallest  detail. 

Japan's  general  staff  has  been  preparing 
day  and  night  for  the  present  war  for  every 
month  of  every  year  of  an  entire  decade. 
Oyama's  victories  were  ripening  in  the  brain 
of  this  modern  Attila  for  ten  long  years. 
Von  JMoltke  had  thought  out  the  conquest  of 
France  years  before  fate  blew  the  trumpet 
that  set  the  tremendous  enginery  of  liis  plans 
in  motion.  Yes,  but  these  men  kept  thinking, 
thinking. 

Nobody  heard  thern  saying  that  all  great 
wars  had  been  fought.  Perhaps  they  did  not 
know  whether  all  wars  had  been  fought  or 
not;  but  they  knew  this:  That  if  any  future 
wars  were  to  be  fought,  those  wars  would  be 
bigger  than  any  conflict  that  had  gone  before, 
and  that  their  armies  would  have  to  be  handled 
with  greater  precision,  and  their  tactics  would 
have  to  be  more  daring  than  even  those  of 
Napoleon,  or  Hannibal,  or  Csesar. 

296 


GREAT   THINGS    YET   TO   BE   DONE 

Very  well,  the  Franco-Prussian  War  did 
come.  The  Russo-Japanese  War  did  come. 
And  when  the  time  for  these  dread  duels  be- 
tween peoples  arrived,  those  men  were  in  the 
saddle.  Battles  whose  red  desperation  have 
made  the  world's  historic  combats  look  small, 
have  within  a  year  taught  all  men  that  the 
art  of  war  requires  as  much  original  thinking 
as  it  did  when  the  Corsican  overwhelmed  the 
muddled  military  minds  of  Europe,  weakened 
and  palsied  by  the  belief  that  nothing  more 
was  to  be  learned  in  warfare. 

JNIanchuria's  awful  lesson  teaches  you,  young 
man,  that  the  profession  of  arms,  dreadful  as 
it  is  honorable,  holds  out  to  you  all  the  possi- 
bilities by  which  every  great  captain  of  history 
made  his  name  immortal. 

"  I  think  the  statesmanship  of  Joseph  Cham- 
berlain is  the  most  comprehensive  and  instruct- 
ive since  that  of  Bismarck,"  said  a  passenger 
on  an  ocean  steamer  to  an  Englishman  of  con- 
siderable distinction  in  the  world  of  letters. 

"  I  fail  to  see  the  statesmanship,"  said  the 
latter;  "  will  you  kindly  point  it  out?  " 

"  Why,"  said  the  admirer  of  Chamberlain, 
"the  British  Empire  needed  unifying;  it 
needed  to  be  bound  together  by  ties  of  sen- 
timent, by  all  those  means  which  consolidate 
20  297 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

a  nation.  Its  connections  were  too  loose. 
Chamberlain  has,  by  the  Boer  War,  begun  its 
unification.  Canadians  have  fallen  on  the 
same  field  with  England's  soldiers. 

"  Australians  have  poured  out  their  blood  as 
a  common  sacrifice  for  England's  flag.  The 
empire  has  been  knit  together  by  a  common 
heroism,  a  common  sacrifice,  a  common  glory, 
and  a  common  cause.  It  should  not  be  hard 
to  induce  all  portions  of  the  empire  to  unite 
on  a  great  scheme  of  parliamentary  represen- 
tation.    I  call  that  great  statesmanship." 

"  Yes,  indeed  it  is,"  said  the  English  littera- 
teur, "  but  Joseph  Chamberlain  never  had  such 
a  thought." 

The  point  of  the  conversation  is  that, 
whether  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  this  thought 
or  not,  the  materials  for  the  thought  existed. 
The  conditions  for  this  really  constructive 
statesmanship  were  there.  They  awaited  the 
hand  of  the  master.  Conditions  of  equal  mag- 
nitude exist  in  half-a-dozen  places  in  the  world. 
Russian  development  of  Siberia  and  seizure  of 
Manchuria  are  one. 

It  had  for  several  years  appeared  to  me  that 
Manchuria  was  the  point  about  which  the  in- 
ternational politics  of  the  world  would  swirl 
for  the  next  quarter  of  a  century.     So  certain 

298 


GREAT   THINGS    YET   TO   BE   DONE 

did  this  seem,  that  I  hastened  to  this  great 
future  battle-field  in  the  year  1901;  and  while 
the  diplomats  of  all  the  nations,  including  our 
own,  scoffed  at  the  possibilities  of  war  between 
Russia  and  Japan,  the  certainty  of  that  mighty 
contest  could  be  read  in  the  very  stars  that 
shone  above  Manchuria,  in  the  very  Japanese 
barracks,  on  every  Japanese  drill-ground. 

Settlement  of  this  tremendous  dispute  will 
call  for  larger  statesmanship  than  the  world 
has  seen  for  half  a  century.  The  movements 
of  all  the  powers  at  the  present  crisis,  and,  in- 
deed, their  entire  Oriental  policy,  are  of  the 
most  solemn  concern  to  the  Republic  not  only 
for  the  immediate  moment,  but  even  more  for 
the  future. 

This  is  especially  true  of  Japan;  for,  with 
cheap  labor,  rare  aptitude  for  manufacture, 
and  propinquity  of  position,  the  Island  Em- 
pire now  becomes  the  most  formidable  com- 
petitor for  the  trade  of  China. 

And  China  is  the  only — or  at  least  the 
richest — unexploited  market  where  American 
factories  and  farms  can,  in  the  future,  dispose 
of  their  accumulating  surplus.  England  al- 
most monopolized  China's  coast  markets  until, 
recently,  Germany  began  rapidly  to  overhaul 
her.    But  Japan  will,  in  the  near  future,  dis- 

299 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

tance  both.  American  interests  in  the  Far 
East  are  vital  even  now;  and  they  are  only  in 
their  beginning.  We  cannot  longer  be  indif- 
ferent to  any  statesmanship  that  involves  the 
commercial  development  of  Asia.  Solution  of 
the  great  problems  which  the  Russo-Japanese 
war  has  stated,  and  the  resultant  steps  there- 
after taken,  are  of  keenest  interest,  and  may 
be  of  most  serious  import,  to  the  American 
people. 

It  is  very  possible,  as  I  pointed  out  in  "  The 
Russian  Advance,"  that  Japan  will  attempt 
the  reorganization  of  China.  Indeed,  that  de- 
velopment is  quite  probable.  That  is  certainly 
Japan's  plan  and  ideal.  Any  one  of  a  half 
dozen  courses  may  be  adopted.  And,  I  re- 
peat it,  any  one  of  them  may  present  the 
gravest  of  situations  to  American  statesman- 
ship. As  I  write  it  is  quite  sure  that  Russia 
is  beaten  on  the  field.  Think  now,  young  man, 
of  the  immensity  of  the  statesmanship  required 
right  now,  which  five  years  ago  everybody 
would  have  declared  impossible  and  absurd. 

Especially  will  Japanese  dominance  of  the 
Orient,  military  and  commercial,  upon  which 
Japan  is  determined,  bring  us  Americans  face 
to  face  with  a  new  set  of  conditions,  requiring 
the  highest  order  of  careful  thought,  the  clear- 

300 


GREAT   THINGS   YET   TO   BE   DONE 

est,  firmest  announcement  of  national  policy. 
Do  not  fear,  yomig  man,  lest  all  of  tliis  be 
over  before  the  time  has  come  for  you  to  play 
your  part  on  the  stage  of  human  affairs.  The 
new  problems  which  the  whole  Orient  will 
propose  to  the  entire  world,  and  particularly 
to  America,  will  last  for  a  century  at  least. 

Indeed,  it  is  probable  that  our  relations  with 
the  East  will  become  and  remain  one  of  the 
leading  subjects  of  American  statesmanship  as 
long  as  the  Republic  endures.  For  that  mat- 
ter, you  may  go  further,  and  say  that  the  great 
human  question  of  modern  times  is  the  meet- 
ing face  to  face  of  Oriental  and  Occidental 
ideals,  of  the  white  and  yellow  theory  of  life 
and  morals,  and  the  gradual  destruction  of  one 
by  the  other,  or  their  mutual  modification  and 
adjustment. 

But  we  are  getting  into  deep  waters  now. 
That  is  the  point  I  am  making.  They  show 
that,  dive  you  ever  so  deep,  young  man,  pres- 
ent-daj'-  statesmanship  has  depths  which  not 
even  the  plummet  of  imagination  has  yet  been 
able  to  sound.  And  can  we  doubt  that  to- 
morrow's national  and  world  problems  will  be 
deeper  still? 

There  are  three  or  four  great  international 
questions  for  this  Republic  to  solve  on  this 

301 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

Western  hemisphere,  the  working  out  of  any 
one  of  which  means  immortahty  for  the  states- 
man who  does  it. 

Of  course,  the  great  industrial  and  socio- 
logical questions  are  the  profoundest  of  all. 
The  world  has  been  at  work  on  tliese  since 
men  arranged  themselves  into  organized  soci- 
ety. But  the  incredibly  swift  evolution  of 
modern  business  itself  seems  to  be  hastening 
the  time  when  some  satisfactory  solution  of 
these  master  problems  must  at  least  be  begun. 

So  that,  if  3^ou  really  have  the  material  of 
a  statesman  in  you — the  stuff  that  thinks  out 
the  answer  to  great  questions — there  is  a  field 
before  you  compared  with  which  the  oppor- 
tunities of  Hamilton  and  Washington  and 
Jefferson  almost  seem  small,  leviathan  as  those 
opportunities  were  and  masterfully  as  those 
great  men  improved  them. 

The  editor  of  one  of  our  big  modern  news- 
papers gave  it  to  me  as  his  opinion  that  the 
art  of  producing  a  newspaper  is  as  much  in  its 
infancy  as  is  the  science  of  electricity.  "  The 
yellow  journal,"  said  he,  "is  an  evolution,  just 
as  trusts  in  their  deeper  significance  are  an 
evolution.  We  have  had  the  didactic  editor; 
he  did  his  work  and  has  passed  away.  We  are 
now  having  the  editor  who  deals  with  facts — 

302 


GREAT   THINGS   YET   TO   BE   DONE 

*  cold  facts,'  as  Dickens  would  say — but,  in  his 
turn,  he  is  only  a  part  of  the  general  evolution. 
There  is  not  an  editor  in  this  country,^  no  mat- 
ter what  his  own  views  may  be  as  to  his  own 
paper,  who  does  not  know,  and  in  his  heart 
admit,  that  the  ideal  paper  is  yet  to  be  pro- 
duced." 

Excellent  and  even  wonderful  as  the  public 
press  of  to-day  is,  the  above  is  the  opinion 
held  by  the  great  mass  of  men;  and  it  is  the 
correct  opinion.  I  mean  what  I  say  when  I 
use  the  words  "  excellent  and  wonderful "  as 
applied  to  newspapers.  To  me  the  newspaper 
is  a  daily  astonishment.  What  we  are  all  in 
search  of  is  fresh  and  vital  thought  and  sug- 
gestion; and  no  one  can  acquire  the  art  of 
newspaper  reading  without  getting,  each  day, 
one  or  many  new  points  of  view  on  the  world 
and  its  great  human  currents. 

Each  one  of  our  metropolitan  papers  is  at 
enormous  outlay  to  get  strong,  capable  men 
— young  men  with  new  minds  and  old  men 
with  wise  minds.  It  is  simply  out  of  the 
question  for  these  men,  working  together,  to 
bring  forth  a  product  that  does  not  have  in  it 
some  remarkable  thing — some  new  point  of 
view,  some  fact  which  your  most  careful  re- 
search has  not  disclosed  to  you. 

303 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

I  remember  an  instance  in  my  own  experi- 
ence. There  was  a  subject  to  which  I  had 
given  some  years  of  ofF-and-on  study.  I  felt 
that  at  least  the  facts  had  been  accumulated. 
All  that  remained  was  to  deduce  the  tiiith  from 
these  facts.  But  an  editorial  on  this  subject 
in  a  notable  daily  paper  brought  out  a  salient 
fact  which  none  of  the  books  had  mentioned, 
and  yet  which,  when  one's  attention  was  called 
to  it,  was  so  apparent  that  it  really  ought  to 
have  suggested  itself.  Yet  all  the  speeches  of 
the  specialists  on  this  subject,  and  all  of  the 
volumes,  had  failed  to  note  it. 

Some  vigorous  young  mind  on  that  paper 
had  discovered  it  in  studying  the  elementary 
factors  of  the  problem  itself.  But  this  is  di- 
gression. I  am  simply  calling  your  attention 
to  the  fact  that  there  are  opportunities  for  you 
to  be  greater  in  the  world  of  journalism  than 
Greeley,  or  Raymond,  or  Bennett,  or  Bov/les, 
or  Dana,  or  any  of  the  extraordinary  men  that 
have  illumined  the  whole  science  of  journal- 
ism by  their  intellect,  accomplishments,  and 
character. 

Electricity  is  a  mysterious  force  which  ex- 
cites not  only  all  the  speculation  but  all  the 
mysticism  in  man.  I  contemplate  its  mani- 
festations —  equally  deadly  and  vital  —  with 

304 


GREAT   THINGS    YET   TO   BE   DONE 

feelings  of  wonder  and  awe.  I  always  search 
for  an  electrician  and  listen  to  his  stories  of 
the  mysterious  power  with  which  he  deals. 
One  of  the  greatest  of  them  said  to  me  last 
year: 

"  No,  we  really  know  nothing  about  it,  after 
all.  We  have  managed  to  do  a  great  many 
things  with  it.  We  have  learned  some  of  its 
•properties,  but  it  holds  fast  its  inner  secrets. 
The  great  universe  of  electrical  discovery  has 
hardly  been  entered."  But  electricity  is  not 
the  only  modern  mystery. 

Take  photography,  that  wizard-like  science. 
The  man  who,  fifty  years  ago,  would  have 
predicted  the  moving  picture  which  has  already 
become  commonplace  to  us,  would  have  been 
rejected  as  a  madman.  Tele-photography  is 
almost  as  remarkable  as  the  moving  picture. 
Color-photography  will  yet  be  reduced  to  per- 
fection. The  chemists  are  constantly  astound- 
ing us  with  suggestions  so  remarkable  that  they 
are  weird. 

Luther  Bm-bank  creating  new  species  of 
plant  life,  Max  Standfuss  doing  the  Hke  with 
insects,  make  the  Arabian  Nights  common- 
place and  dull.  Think  of  the  Roentgen  rays! 
Think  of  the  achievement  of  the  wonderful 
young  Italian !    Marconi's  invention  seems  un- 

305 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

canny,  so  impossible  does  it  appear  even  when 
you  watch  his  magic  instrument  at  work. 

In  the  laboratories  of  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica investigations  are  this  very  moment  being 
made  into  Nature's  securest  secrets.  The  mys- 
tery of  to-day  will  be  to-morrow's  accepted  and 
commonplace  truth.  One  seizes  one's  head  and 
closes  one's  eyes  in  bewilderment  at  the  possi- 
bilities of  science  in  every  direction. 

All  the  great  inventions,  all  the  great  dis- 
coveries, made!  How  like  the  egotism  of  the 
infinitesimal  mind  of  the  human  race  that 
thought  this! 

If  all  the  great  inventions  and  discoveries 
have  been  made,  man  has  already  mastered  all 
of  the  laws  of  God's  universe,  and  applied 
them  practically  to  all  conditions  and  sub- 
stances in  existence.    How  absurd! 

The  field  of  invention  and  scientific  discov- 
ery is  like  that  strange  and  awful  manifesta- 
tion known  as  the  "  Milky  Way."  We  see  it 
with  our  naked  eye — numberless  stars  and  a 
pale,  growing  blur  around  and  behind  them, 
and  we  childishly  call  it  the  "  Milky  Way." 

That  miracle  called  the  telescope  is  in- 
vented; we  look  again,  and  there  are  more 
and  new  stars— but,  still  farther  on  in  the 
infinite  depths,  the  blur  of  light.    Higher  and 

306 


GREAT   THINGS    YET   TO   BE   DONE 

higher  goes  the  power  of  telescope  after  tele- 
scope, but  all  that  they  reveal  is  a  bewilder- 
ing infinitude  of  more  new  stars — and  beyond 
that  again  the  "  Milky  Way." 

This  is  an  old  and  commonplace  illustration, 
I  know  very  well;  but  it  exactly  represents  the 
possibilities  of  new  and  vast  inventions,  of 
strange  and  priceless  discoveries,  wherever  you 
turn  your  eye. 

The  only  question  is  whether  you  have  the 
eye.  The  conditions  are  there  to  be  discov- 
ered— begging  for  discovery.  If  you  have 
vision  and  do  not  produce  a  great  invention, 
the  fault  is  not  in  the  universe  about  you.  Of 
course,  if  you  haven't  vision,  do  not  attempt 
it.  Darius  Green  and  his  flying  machine  are 
ridiculous  always. 

What  I  have  said  of  invention,  war,  states- 
manship, literature,  journalism,  and  the  law, 
may  be  applied  to  every  conceivable  field  of 
human  thought.  I  merely  wish  to  impress 
upon  the  great  mass  of  young  Americans  that 
not  only  have  all  the  great  things  not  been 
done,  but  that  the  greatest  of  great  things  are 
yet  to  come. 

If  you  have  greatness  in  you,  do  not  be  dis- 
couraged.    "  It  is  up  to  you.'' 

Do  not  be  discouraged,  either,  at  failure  and 
307 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

rebuke  and  defeat.  If  you  are  going  to  at- 
tempt great  things,  remember  you  are  starting 
on  a  trunk-line.  Very  well;  all  continental 
trunk-lines  have  tunnels  here  and  there.  But 
these  tunnels  are  black  with  only  temporary 
gloom. 

It  is  only  the  short  roads  that  do  not  run 
through  the  mountains.  Tunnels — flashes  of 
darkness — are  certain  to  those  who  travel  far. 
Think  of  this — you  who  have  troubles,  diffi- 
culties, discouragements. 

But  if  on  finding  your  limitations,  as  sug- 
gested in  the  first  chapter  of  this  book,  you 
discover  neither  inclination  nor  talent  for  these 
great  ventures  in  thought  or  action,  do  not,  as 
you  value  happiness,  and  even  life,  attempt 
great  things ;  for  your  f ailm'e  has  been  written 
before  you  were  born. 

Do  the  thing  which  is  in  proportion  to  your- 
self; and  if  that  thing  is  not  great,  still  you 
have  served  yourself,  your  family,  your  coun- 
try, and  the  world,  just  as  much  as  he  who  has 
done  a  larger  thing,  and  you  deserve  just  as 
much  credit  for  doing  it. 

None  of  us  controlled  the  color  of  our  eyes 
or  the  texture  of  our  brain.  If  we  could  have 
done  so,  perhaps  we  should  have  been  differ- 
ent from  what  we  are.    And  we  cannot  change 

308 


GREAT   THINGS    YET    TO   BE   DONE 

the  nature  and  relations  of  things  now;  for 
"  which  of  you  by  taking  thought  can  add 
one  cubit  unto  his  stature"? 

But  be  your  deeds  httle  or  big,  one  thing 
you  can  do  and  be:  You  can  be  a  man  and  do 
a  man's  work,  heart  gentle,  and  fearless  feet 
on  the  earth,  but  eyes  on  the  stars.  And  to  be 
a  MAN  J  in  our  American  meaning  of  that  word, 
is  glory  enough  for  this  earthly  life.  Be  a 
man,  be  you  street-sweeper  or  the  Republic's 
President,  and  know  that  emperor  on  throne 
of  gold  can  be  no  more,  and  is  lucky  if  he  is 
as  much. 


309 


IX 

NEGATIVE    FUNDAMENTALS 

At  one  of  the  great  official  receptions  at 
the  White  House  one  night  some  years  ago, 
a  group  of  two  or  three  gentlemen  were  ob- 
serving the  swirling  throng,  with  its  ambitions, 
its  jealousies,  its  brief  flashes  of  happiness,  its 
numberless  and  infinitesimal  intrigues,  its  at- 
mosphere of  jaded,  blase,  and  defeated  expec- 
tations. 

One  of  the  group  was  perhaps  the  greatest 
master  of  that  mere  political  craft  and  that 
management  of  men  for  the  ordinary  uses  of 
politics,  as  we  employ  the  word,  that  the  coun- 
try has  yet  produced.  He  was  a  sage  of  hu- 
man nature.  It  was  this  quality,  combined 
with  many  other  qualities,  and  the  existence 
of  certain  conditions,  that  made  him  the  power 
that  he  was.  From  a  practical  point  of  view, 
what  he  said  about  men  was  always  worth 
while. 

"  No,  I  don't  consider  him  effective,"  said 
this  great  politician  when  asked  his  opinion  of 

310 


NEGATIVE   FUNDAMENTALS 

a  certain  very  jirominent  man  in  public  life, 
who  had  just  entered,  and  who  was  chatting 
and  occasionally  laughing  with  some  boister- 
ousness.  "  Really,  he  talks  too  much.  Not 
that  he  betrays  his  confidences;  not  even  that 
he  annoys,  for  what  he  says  is  always  bright; 
but — he  talks  too  much;  that  is  all." 

"It's  a  pity,"  said  one  of  the  group,  who 
was  a  famous  Washington  newspaper  cor- 
respondent, "  that  that  man  has  never  mar- 
ried." 

He  was  talking  of  another  very  strong  pro- 
fessional and  political  man  who  had  reached 
more  than  forty  years  of  age  and  was  still  a 
bachelor.  "  He  needs  the  finer  sense  and  re- 
straining influence  of  woman  in  his  life." 

The  remark  of  the  first  speaker  instantly  re- 
called an  observation  made  several  years  ago 
by  another  very  astute — even  great — politician 
in  the  minor  and  narrow  sense  of  that  word. 
He  was  at  that  time  a  candidate  for  the  nom- 
ination for  President,  and,  according  to  all  the 
tricks  of  the  game  of  politics,  should  have  won 
it;  but  he  failed,  as,  it  seems,  with  two  excep- 
tions, all  mere  politicians  have  failed  in  secur- 
ing that  most  exalted  office  in  the  world. 

This  political  candidate  actually  knew  the 
leading  men  in  each  state,  and  in  each  part 

311 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

of  each  state — so  careful  and  thorough  had 
been  his  purely  personal  preparation.    "  How 

is  Mr.  ,  of ,  in  your  state?     I  hope 

he  is  well.  He  is  a  keen  and  persistent  man," 
was  his  inquiry  of  and  comment  on  a  certain 
man.  And  he  asked  questions  concerning 
tiiree  or  four.     Among  them  he  said:  "And 

Mr. ,  of  your  state ;  how  is  his  health?    He 

is  very  brilliant,  yes,  even  able,  but — he  drinks 
too  much." 

Three  generalizations  may  justly  be  de- 
ducted from  the  above  discursive  talk.  They 
are  practically  the  ones  with  which  for  many 
years  I  have  been  impressed — namely,  that  that 
man  will  be  of  very  little  present  use,  and  of  no 
permanent  and  ultimate  value  to  the  world  or 
to  himself,  who  drinks  too  much,  who  talks  too 
much,  or  who  thinks  he  can  get  along  without 
the  ennobling  influence  of  women. 

Let  us  take  them  one  at  a  time.  A  young 
man  could  hardly  do  a  more  fatal  thing  than 
to  fall  into  the  habit  of  taking  stimulants. 
This  is  no  temperance  lecture.  It  is  merely  a 
summary  of  suggestions,  by  observing  which 
the  young  man  may  avoid  a  few  of  the  rocks 
in  his  necessarily  rugged  pathway  to  success. 
I  emphasized  this  in  two  preceding  chapters 
and  shall  reiterate  it  again  and  again;  for  I 

312 


J 


NEGATIVE   FUNDAMENTALS 

am  trying  to  say  a  helpful  word  to  youj  and 
all  your  talents  will  be  folly  and  all  your  toil 
the  labor  of  Sisyphus  if  you  companion  with 
the  bottle. 

The  belief  sometimes  entertained,  that  it  is 
necessary  to  drink  in  order  to  impress  your 
sociability  upon  companions  who  also  drink, 
is  utterly  erroneous.  One  day  a  dinner  was 
given  by  one  of  the  great  lawyers  of  this  coun- 
try in  honor  of  another  lawyer  of  distinction, 
and  among  those  present  was  a  j^oung  man  of 
promise  who  at  that  time  was  considerably  in 
the  public  eye. 

The  dinner  began  with  a  cocktail,  and  the 
young  man  was  the  only  one  of  the  brilliant 
company  who  did  not  drink  it.  He  was  not 
ostentatious  in  his  refusal,  but  merely  lifted 
the  glass  to  his  lips  and  then  set  it  down  with 
the  others.  Nor  did  he  take  any  wine  through- 
out the  dinner.  The  incident  was  noticed  by 
onl}^  a  few,  and  those  few  chanced  to  meet  at 
a  club  the  next  day.  The  young  man  was  the 
topic  of  their  conversation. 

"  Well,"  said  the  great  lawyer,  "  a  young 
man  who  has  enough  self-restraint  to  deny 
himself  as  that  young  man  did,  and  who  at 
the  same  time  is  so  scintillating  in  speech,  so 
genuine  and  original  in  thought,  and  so  charm- 
21  313 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

ing  in  manner,  has  in  him  simply  tremendous 
possibilities.  I  have  not  been  so  impressed  in 
a  long"  time  as  I  was  by  his  refraining  from 
drinking." 

This  incident  is  related  simply  to  show  that 
a  yomig  man  loses  nothing  in  the  esteem  of 
those  who  themselves  drink  by  declining  to 
join  them. 

I  repeat,  this  is  no  temperance  lecture.  I 
know  perfectly  well  that  some  of  the  strongest 
men  in  business  and  politics  and  literary  life 
in  this  country  take  wine  occasionally  at  the 
dinner-table  and  elsewhere.  Nor  are  they  to 
be  condemned  for  it.  But  this  paper  is  meant 
to  contain  vital  suggestions  to  young  men  with 
life's  possibilities  and  difficulties  before  them. 

It  is  so  entirely  uncertain  whether  you  have 
the  will  in  you  to  keep  your  hands  very  firmly 
on  the  reins  of  the  wild  horses  of  habit.  It  is  so 
utterly  unknown  to  you  whether  you  may  not 
have  inherited  from  an  ancestor,  even  very 
remote,  an  inflammable  blood  which,  once 
touched  by  stimulant,  is  ever  after  on  fire. 

You  risk  too  much,  and  you  risk  it  need- 
lessly. My  earnest  advice  is  not  to  try  it.  I 
will  leave  to  the  doctors  the  description  of  its 
effect  on  nerve  and  brain,  and  to  common 
observation   the   universal   testimony   to   the 

314 


NEGATIVE   FUNDAMENTALS 

peculiar  blurring  of  judgment  which  stimu- 
lant of  any  kind  usually  produces.  Besides, 
it  is  a  very  bad  thing  for  a  young  man  to 
get  a  reputation  for. 

I  have  concluded,  after  very  careful  obser- 
vation, that  there  is  a  mighty  change  being 
wrought  in  this  habit,  and  that  a  great  ma- 
jority of  the  young  men  who  are  now  the 
masters  of  affairs  are  abstainers.  In  short, 
drinking  will  soon  be  out  of  style,  and  very 
bad  form. 

Consider  these  illustrations :  I  know  a  young 
man  who  is  just  forty  years  of  age  and  who 
is  practically  the  head  of  one  of  the  greatest 
business  institutions  in  the  world.  He  has 
worked  his  way  to  that  position  by  ability, 
character,  and  untiring  industry,  from  the 
very  humblest  position  in  his  company's  ser- 
vice.   He  is  a  total  abstainer. 

I  know  another,  also  just  forty,  who  is  presi- 
dent of  one  of  the  largest  banks  in  America. 
When  I  first  knew  him,  very  many  years  ago, 
he  occupied  the  position  of  cashier  in  a  com- 
paratively obscure  financial  house.  Merit 
alone  has  jilaced  him  where  he  is  now.  He  had 
no  friends  when  he  began,  no  "  influence," 
hardly  an  acquaintance.  But  he  had  himself, 
clear  brained  and  steady  pulsed — and  that  was 

315 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

enough.     He,  too,  does  not  touch  stimulants 
of  any  kind. 

Or,  to  get  out  of  that  class  of  occupations — 
one  of  the  most  successful  political  "  bosses  " 
in  this  country,  a  man  who  makes  politics  his 
profession,  and  who,  just  past  forty,  is  in  con- 
trol of  the  political  machine  of  one  of  our 
great  cities,  rose  to  that  position,  by  ability 
alone,  from  the  occupation  of  a  street-car 
driver.    He  also  is  a  total  abstainer. 

Not  only  do  any  of  these  three  young  men 
not  drink — also  they  neither  smoke  nor  swear. 
And  they  are  types  of  twentieth  century 
success.  The  "  stein-on-the-table-and-a-good- 
song-ringing-clear"  kind  of  man  is  out  of  date. 

You  see,  so  nerve-consuming  are  all  the 
activities  of  modern  life  that  only  the  very 
highest  types  of  effectiveness  succeed.  Brain 
of  ice,  hand  of  steel,  heart  of  fire,  clear  vision, 
and  cold,  steady  grasp  of  the  lever  and  master- 
ful, and  yet  a  passionate  relentlessness — these 
are  necessary.  Stimulants  destroy  effective- 
ness; that  is  the  trouble  with  them.  And  you 
need  every  ounce  of  your  power.  Do  not  let 
the  people  who  talk  "  moderation  "  to  j^ou  per- 
suade you  otherwise.  We  find  many  such  in 
what  is  called  "  society,"  where  the  taking  of 
wine  moderately  is  universal. 

316 


NEGATIVE   FUNDAMENTALS 

I  repeat  that  you  cannot  tell  what  your 
powers  of  resistance  are.  Unfortunately, 
many  of  the  world's  noblest  characters  have 
had  nerves  so  finely  wrought  and  brain  so  vivid 
that  a  single  drop  of  stimulant  started  a  per- 
fect conflagration  within  them.  One  of  the 
ablest  men  this  country  has  ever  known,  when 
questioned  by  a  friend  as  to  what  had  been  the 
greatest  pleasure  of  his  life,  said :  "  The  great- 
est '  pleasure  '  of  my  life  is  the  delirium  of  in- 
toxication " ;  and  then  he  went  on  to  say  how 
sure  he  was  that  if  the  fires  of  desire  had  never 
been  lighted  in  his  blood  he  would  have  done 
better  work. 

All  of  us  can  recall  such  examples  in  our 
own  experience.  Don't  risk  it,  therefore, 
young  man.  Why  take  the  chance  ?  for  even  if 
you  discover  no  taste  for  it,  you  will  find  that 
there  is  nothing  in  it,  after  all.  Why  this 
hazard  of  your  powers,  just  to  find  out  whether 
you  can  resist?  It  is  a  one-sided  gamble,  is 
it  not?  Even  fools  refuse  to  play  when  they 
know  that  the  dice  may  be  loaded. 

Don't  think  that  you  have  got  to  be  a  great 
public  man,  or  a  big  politician,  or  a  celebrated 
scientist,  or  distinguished  in  any  line,  before 
these  practical  truths  apply  to  you.  You  must 
build  your  whole  life  upon  them  from  the  very 

317 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    IVORLD 

beginning.  For  example,  I  know  a  man  who 
for  several  years  has  been  exercising  ever- 
increasing  power  in  his  State.  He  selects  his 
lieutenants  with  greatest  possible  care,  con- 
sulting with  trained  advisers  about  the  quali- 
fications of  each  man  to  whom  any  political 
work  is  to  be  trusted. 

Very  well.  The  first  question  asked  always 
is,  "Does  he  drink?"  If  he  does,  that  fact 
strikes  a  black  line  through  his  name.  He  is 
no  longer  considered,  no  matter  how  capable 
and  energetic  he  may  be  otherwise.  For,  or- 
dinarily, another  man  just  as  effective  can  be 
found  who  does  not  have  this  defect. 

This  entire  chapter  could  be  taken  up  with 
these  instances;  and  the  increasing  number  of 
them,  the  remarks  I  have  quoted  of  that 
master  of  worldly  wisdom  at  the  White  House 
reception,  the  observation  of  the  great  poli- 
tician about  the  strong  man  of  his  party  in 
another  state,  fairly  justify,  I  think,  a  sug- 
gestion to  yomig  men  that  as  a  practical, 
worldly,  and  business  matter  they  had  better 
use  no  stimulants,  either  alcoholic  or  others, 
for  others  are  just  as  bad,  or  worse,  than  the 
former.  Indeed,  alcohol  and  other  various 
forms  of  wines  and  other  like  stimulants  have 
had    a    disproportionate    amount    of    abuse 

318 


NEGATIVE   FUNDAMENTALS 

heaped  upon  them.  Let  the  young  man  look 
out  for  all  kinds  of  stimulants. 

Weariness,  exhaustion  even,  is  no  excuse. 
If  you  are  tired,  take  a  rest.  If  your  natural 
energy  is  not  equal  to  your  task,  take  a  lesser 
task.  There  is  nothing  more  melancholy  than 
the  spectacle  of  men,  young  or  old,  attempting 
things  out  of  proportion  to  themselves.  It  is 
hard  to  gage  what  is  beyond  one's  natural 
powers,  it  is  true.  But  if  you  feel  the  need  of 
stimulants  to  keep  you  up  to  the  level  of  your 
work,  that  is  at  least  one  unfailing  test  of  your 
limitations.  I  must  repeat,  for  the  third  time, 
that  all  of  this  advice — no,  let  us  say  sugges- 
tion— is  made  only  as  a  matter  of  practical  help 
to  young  men  trying  to  get  on  in  the  world. 

It  is  the  mere  business  side  of  the  question 
at  which  we  are  looking  now,  for  it  is  business 
itself  that  is  working  this  change.  People  do 
not  want  a  lawyer  whose  brain  is  not  clear,  a 
doctor,  dealing  with  life  and  death,  whose  per- 
ceptions are  not  steady  and  natural.  People 
refuse  to  ride  on  trains  hauled  by  engineers 
who  may  be  drinking,  and  so  on.  It  is  all  a 
matter  of  cold-blooded  business. 

The  conditions  and  requirements  of  modern 
society  are  coming  to  demand  greater  and 
greater   sobriety    from   those    in   responsible 

319 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

places,  no  matter  whether  at  the  head  of  a 
party  or  a  railway  train.  The  spiritual  phase, 
the  medical  view,  the  moral,  social,  and  eco- 
nomic sides  of  the  question  I  would  not,  under 
any  circumstances,  assume  to  deal  with.  On 
all  these  there  are  various  views,  none  of  which 
would  I  undertake  to  weigh  or  judge. 

And  excessive  talking!  Don't  indulge  in 
that  either.  Politicians  are  not  the  only  ones 
who  think  interminable  talk  an  indication  of 
weakness.  I  knew  a  liveryman  who  was  also 
a  great  horse-trader.  Said  he:  "  I  shy  clear 
across  the  road  when  a  tonguey  man  tries  to 
deal  with  me." 

Of  course,  reserve  in  speech,  particularly  in 
conversation,  is  so  ancient  and  favorite  a  sub- 
ject of  the  giver  of  advice  that  it  is  now 
commonplace.  Literature  is  full  of  it. 
Shakespeare  nearly  reaches  the  crest  of  it  in 
the  advice  Polonius  gave  to  his  son.  But  here, 
as  always,  the  very  climax  is  the  Bible. 

"  Let  your  communication  be  Yea,  yea; 
Nay,  nay;  for  whatsoever  is  more  than  these 
Cometh  of  evil." 

This  is  not  advice  to  taciturnity.  It  is  not 
a  suggestion  that  you  should  be  stolid  and 
wooden  in  manner  and  speech.  The  reason  of 
it  is  to  prevent  you  from  making  mistakes  or 

320 


NEGATIVE   FUNDAMENTALS 

betraying  yourself  by  foolish  and  unnecessaiy 
utterance.  JNIy  suggestion  to  young  men  that 
they  practise  reserve  in  speech  is  merely  a  prac- 
tical and  almost  a  commercial  matter.  Do  not 
be  "  a  man  full  of  talk,"  as  Zophar  cuttingly 
puts  it. 

There  is  a  loss  of  authority  that  comes  from 
incessant  talking.  There  is  a  surrender  of 
dignity,  which  is  one  of  the  most  influential 
things  in  man's  attitude  toward  and  in  con- 
nection with  his  fellows.  Silence,  or  rather 
reserve,  gives  a  kind  of  emphasis  to  what  you 
do.  To  a  great  many,  also,  there  is  an  index 
of  your  character  in  the  quantity  of  your 
speech.  It  is  so  refreshing  to  meet  a  man  from 
whom  you  draw  the  feeling  that  he  is  as  deep 
and  as  full  as  the  seven  seas. 

This  will  never  be  drawn  from  any  man 
whose  talk  is  continuous,  no  matter  if  he  is 
an  encyclopedia  of  information  and  a  bat- 
tery of  brilliancy.  A  man  may  be  as  compre- 
hensive and  profoimd  as  the  oceans;  the  point 
is,  that  other  men  will  not  easily  be  made  to 
believe  it.  His  continued  sparkle  suggests  a 
champagne  bottle  with  its  limitations,  rather 
than  the  illimitable  deep.  A  good  deal  of  this 
is  mi  just,  and  comes  from  the  universal 
egotism  of  mankind.     Most  men  like  to  feel 

321 


THE   YOUNG  MAN   AND   THE    WORLD 

themselves  both  brilhant  and  copious ;  and  they 
want  you  to  hsten  to  them.  Very  well — you 
do  it ;  you  listen  to  them. 

There  is  a  suggestion  of  wisdom  in  reserve 
of  speech  which  may  be  altogether  out  of 
proportion  to  the  facts.  Are  we  not  all  con- 
tinually quoting  with  approval  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh's  line: 

'*The  shallow  murmur,  but  the  deep  are  dumb." 

Many  a  silent  man  is  as  shallow  as  he  is 
silent — but  he  may  be  as  deep  also;  and  be- 
cause he  gives  no  sign  as  to  whether  he  is 
deep  or  shallow,  and  because  his  silence 
offends  no  one  and  is  not  in  the  way  of 
those  who  want  to  talk,  he  is  given  credit 
for  profundity. 

We  all  know  the  story  of  the  worn-out, 
world-tired  club-man  who  said  he  was  look- 
ing for  a  man  who  was  really  wise,  really 
experienced,  and  really  deep.  At  last  he  felt 
that  he  had  found  him  in  another  club-man 
— very  handsome,  especially  full  of  fore- 
head and  broad  between  the  eyes,  perfectly 
groomed,  and  silent  to  the  point  of  stillness. 
The  Searcher  for  a  Wise  Man  tried  to  engage 
him  in  conversation  on  a  hundred  different 

322 


NEGATIVE   FUNDAMENTALS 

subjects.  His  attempts  met  with  failure; 
which  made  a  still  deeper  impression. 

But  at  a  certain  dinner  one  night,  where 
both  of  these  men  were  guests,  the  club-man 
arranged  to  have  the  silent  one  sit  next  to  him. 
Every  attempt  was  still  a  failure.  Nothing 
more  than  "  Yes  "  or  "  No  "  could  be  gotten 
from  the  deep  one.  But  when  shrimps  were 
brought  on,  the  supposedly  great  man  colored 
with  pleasure,  and  said:  "Hey,  shrimps! 
Them's  the  dandies!"     The  illusion  dissolved. 

I  do  not  know  whose  story  this  is,  but  it  illus- 
trates my  point  so  well  that  I  appropriate  it. 
In  other  words,  your  permanent  attitude,  your 
continuous  impression  on  the  world,  is  one  of 
your  assets,  just  as  your  ability  is,  just  as  your 
character  is;  and  discretion  in  speech  is  a  mat- 
ter of  great  moment  as  affecting  this  impres- 
sion. I  use  the  term  continuous  attitude  and 
impression,  because  it  is  a  small  matter  what 
your  temporary  and  transient  impression  is. 
If  it  becomes  necessary,  talk  to  any  extent 
required,  no  matter  what  the  immediate  im- 
pression may  be.  But  it  is  the  stream  and 
continuity  of  your  life  of  which  I  am  now 
speaking. 

The  three  distinguished  successes  cited  a 
moment  ago  in  financial  and  political  hfe  do 

323 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

not  drink,  smoke,  or  swear.  Mark  that  latter 
fact — they  do  not  swear.  I  repeat  again  that 
this  is  no  Sunday-school  lecture,  but  the  plain- 
est kind  of  a  talk  on  practical  methods  of 
success.  The  money  you  will  lay  aside  in 
bank,  or  the  property  you  will  accumulate,  is 
one  kind  of  an  asset;  but  the  respect  of  men, 
the  confidence  of  a  community,  is  an  asset  also, 
and  a  more  valuable  one.  Very  well.  An  oath 
never  yet  created  respect  for  any  man  who 
used  it. 

Even  men  who  are  habitually  profane  al- 
ways feel  a  contemptuous  yet  pitying  regret 
when  they  hear  a  foul  word  fall  from  a  mouth 
they  expected  to  be  clean.  You  want  people 
you  live  among  to  believe  in  you.  They  are  not 
going  to  believe  in  you  spontaneously.  You 
are  on  trial  every  day  of  your  first  few  years 
among  them.  As  you  go  in  and  out  among 
them  they  acquire  a  confidence  in  you  which 
finally  grows  into  an  unquestioning  faith.  Be- 
ware how  you  start,  in  the  minds  of  men  whose 
good-will  you  must  have,  a  question  as  to 
whether  their  good  opinion  of  you  is  justified 
or  not.    Profanity  will  create  such  a  question. 

I  remember  having  heard  the  most  prom- 
ising young  lawyer  in  a  certain  town  swear  in 
the  presence  of  a  conservative  old  banker  who 

32  i 


NEGATIVE  FUNDAMENTALS 

had  begun  to  "  take  the  young  man  up  "  and 
was  giving  him  some  business.  The  gray- 
bearded  man  of  money  made  no  comment,  but 
I  noted  a  shght  Hfting  of  the  eyebrows.  That 
young  man  had  unconsciously  started  a  ques- 
tion of  himself  in  the  mind  of  the  man  whose 
business  friendship  he  was  seeking.  How  did 
that  question  run? 

"What's  this?  An  oath!  I'm  surprised. 
How  does  this  young  fellow  happen  to  swear? 
Perhaps  I  do  not  know  as  much  of  him  as  I 
ought  to.  I  must  look  into  his  antecedents 
more  closely.  What  kind  of  training  has  he 
had?  What  other  bad  habits  has  he  had,  and 
has  he  now?  Yes,  certainly  I  must  look  into 
this  young  man  a  little  more  before  I  trust 
him  further." 

That  is  how  the  question  ran  in  the  old  man's 
mind.  And  nobodj^  can  tell  whether  he  ever 
did  completely  trust  the  young  fellow  again 
or  not.  A  subconscious  inquiry  was  doubtless 
always  present  whenever  that  young  man's 
work  was  mentioned.  No  matter  whether  the 
old  banker's  caution  was  justified;  no  matter 
whether  this  sensitiveness  to  the  language 
which  the  young  man  used  is  reasonable  or  not 
— the  young  man  needs  all  the  respect  and  con- 
fidence he  can  possibly  get.    It  is  a  good  thing 

325 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

for  him  to  have  the  admiration  of  those  among 
whom  he  dwells,  but  their  respect  and  con- 
fidence he  must  have.  He  cannot  get  along 
without  that.  Let  him  be  clean  of  speech, 
therefore. 

This  growing  prejudice  against  profanity- 
is  not  unreasonable.  Oaths  indicate  a  poverty 
of  language — of  ideas.  The  thief,  the  bur- 
glar, the  low-class  criminal  everywhere,  ex- 
presses all  his  emotions  by  oaths.  Are  they 
angry?  They  swear.  Surprised?  They  swear. 
Delighted?  They  swear.  Every  conception  of 
the  mind,  every  impulse  of  the  blood,  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  narrow  and  base  vocabulary  of 
profanity.  So  that  the  fii'st  thing  an  oath 
indicates  is  that  he  who  uses  it  has  limited 
intellectual  resources,  otherwise  he  would  not 
employ  so  commonplace  a  method  of  express- 
ing himself. 

Then,  too,  we  quite  unconsciously  connect 
the  swearing  man  with  the  class  which  habit- 
ually employs  profanity  as  the  staple  of  its 
talk;  and  so  he  who  uses  an  oath  in  our  pres- 
ence automatically  sinks  to  a  little  lower  level 
in  our  esteem.  We  cannot  help  it.  We  do  not 
reason  out  the  why  and  wherefore  of  it,  but 
we  know  it  is  so. 

Do  not  justify  yourself  by  talking  about 
326 


NEGATIVE   FUNDAMENTALS 

Washington  raging  at  Monmouth,  or  Paul 
Jones  boarding  the  Serapis,  or  Erskine  climax- 
ing his  greatest  effort  for  justice  with  an  ap- 
peal to  the  Father  of  the  universe.  These  men 
all  swore,  and  swore  mightily  on  those  occa- 
sions, but  their  oaths  were  oaths  indeed. 

Liberty  or  tyranny,  life  or  death,  justice  or 
infamy,  hung  in  the  balance,  and  their  oaths 
Avere  prayers  as  earnest  as  ever  ascended  to  the 
Throne.  But  that  is  no  example  for  you, 
young  man.  If  you  will  agree  never  to  use 
an  oath  until  you  have  the  provocation  of  trea- 
son, and  your  country  thereby  endangered,  as 
Washington  had  at  Monmouth,  there  are  a 
million  chances  to  one  that  the  Sacred  Name 
will  never  pass  your  lips  in  vain. 

I  knew  a  man  in  the  logging-camps  twenty- 
eight  years  ago.  He  there  acquired  that  lurid 
speech  which  was  the  language  by  which  oxen, 
horses,  and  men  themselves  were  in  those  times 
driven  in  those  rude  camps  of  rugged  industry. 
My  friend  did  not  remain  a  logger.  He 
became  a  lawyer  and  achieved  some  distinc- 
tion and  success,  but  he  could  not  shake  off 
the  habit  of  swearing.  He  would  find  him- 
self "  ripping  out  an  oath,"  as  the  saying  is, 
on  the  most  surprising  occasions — and  they 
were  brilliant  oaths,  sj)lendid,  flashing,  corus- 

327 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

eating  oaths.  His  talk  was  a  very  tropic 
jungle  of  profanity. 

So  great  were  his  abilities,  so  unceasing  and 
intense  his  energies,  and  so  upright  his  life, 
that  he  succeeded  in  spite  of  this  defect.  But 
this  strong,  fine  man  told  me  that  this  low 
habit  of  speech  delayed  his  progress  con- 
stantly. A  few  years  ago,  in  a  great  crisis  in 
his  life,  he  was  suddenly  able  to  break  the 
spell,  and  I  think  he  is  now  prouder  of  his 
clean  words  and  that  mastery  of  himself  which 
their  use  indicates  than  he  is  of  any  single 
success  he  has  achieved  or  of  any  single  honor 
he  has  won. 

But  the  newspaper  correspondent  said  the 
truest  thing  of  all  when  he  suggested  that 
the  really  capable  and  apparently  successful 
lawyer  and  politician,  observed  in  the  passing 
throng,  had  made  a  mistake  in  not  having  had 
the  influence  of  woman  in  his  life.  There  is 
positively  nothing  of  such  value  to  young  men 
— yes,  and  to  old  men,  too — as  the  chastening 
and  powerful  influence  for  good  which  women 
bring  into  their  lives. 

This  is  the  universal  opinion,  too.  All  lit- 
erature voices  it.  Wilhelm  Meister  and  The 
Old  Cattleman  alike  declare  it.  "  There  is  no 
doubt  about  it,"  exclaims  the  sage  of  Wolf- 

328 


NEGATIVE   FUNDAMENTALS 

ville,  "  woman  is  a  refinin',  an  ennoblin'  in- 
fluence. *  *  *  She  subdooes  the  reckless, 
subjoogates  the  rebellious,  sobers  the  friv'lous, 
burns  the  ground  from  onder  the  indolent 
moccasins  of  that  male  she's  roped  up  in  holy 
wedlock's  bonds  an'  pints  the  way  to  a  higher 
and  happier  life.  And  that's  whatever ! " 
And  The  Old  Cattleman  even  includes  the 
raucous  "  JNIissis  Rucker — as  troo  a  lady  as 
ever  baked  a  biscuit." 

I  should  be  the  last  man  in  the  world  to  sug- 
gest that  a  jT^oung  man  should  keep  himself 
"  tied  to  his  mother's  apron-strings,"  as  is  the 
saying  of  the  people;  and  this  is  not  what  I 
mean  when  I  again  earnestly  suggest  that  he 
keep  as  close  to  his  mother's  opinions,  teach- 
ings, and  influence  as  the  circumstances  of  life 
will  permit. 

The  same  thing,  as  already  pointed  out,  may 
be  said  with  reference  to  a  man's  wife — even 
more  strongly,  if  possible.  But  the  conversa- 
tion and  opinion  of  any  good  woman  are,  as 
a  practical  matter  and  a  measure  of  worldly 
wisdom,  simply  beyond  price.  She  is  wise 
with  that  sublimated  reason  called  "  woman's 
instinct." 

There  is,  too,  a  human  quality  kept  alive  and 
growing  in  your  character  by  woman's  associa- 
23  329 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

lion  and  influence  that,  as  a  matter  of  business 
power  in  meeting  the  world  and  its  problems, 
is  far  and  away  beyond  the  value  of  the  craft 
of  the  trickiest  gamester  of  affairs,  business, 
or  politics  who  ever  lived. 

It  is  a  saying  of  the  farmer  folks  among 
whom  I  was  raised  that  such  and  such  a  per- 
son "  has  principle,"  meaning  that  the  person 
so  described  is  upright,  trustworthy,  judicious; 
that  such  a  person's  attitude  toward  God  and 
man  and  the  world  is  correct. 

Women  "  have  principle  "  in  the  sense  in 
which  that  term  is  used  by  the  country  peo- 
ple. They  will  keep  you  true  to  the  order 
of  things — to  the  constitution  of  the  universe. 
They  will  do  this  not  so  much  by  preaching 
at  you,  as  by  the  influence  of  their  very  per- 
sonality. 

The  man  who  has  gotten  out  of  touch  with 
womankind  is  not  to  be  feared.  He  is  to  be 
pitied  rather  than  feared,  for  he  is  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  world — he  is  disarmed.  No 
matter  how  large  his  mind  and  great  his  cour- 
age, he  is  neutralized  for  all  natural,  properly 
proportioned,  and  therefore  enduring,  efl'ort. 

I  know  a  physician  who,  still  young,  has 
reached  the  head  of  his  profession  in  this  coun- 
try.   Sundays  and  the  evenings  with  his  wife 

330 


NEGATIVE   FUNDAMENTALS 

and  children  are  not  enough  for  him;  he  takes 
Wednesday  also.  Precisely  this  same  thing 
is  done  by  the  young  captain  of  finance  and 
affairs  whom  I  described  first  in  this  paper 
as  being  a  total  abstainer.  This  is  not  done 
for  the  rest  it  gives  these  men ;  or,  if  it  is  done 
for  that,  it  is  not  the  greatest  benefit  they  get 
out  of  it. 

They  come  back  to  their  work  with  clearer 
and  stronger  conceptions  of  human  character 
and  of  truth  in  the  abstract  and  the  concrete, 
with  which  all  men,  no  matter  what  their  pro- 
fession or  business  may  be,  must  deal.  They 
have  a  new  tenderness,  a  larger  tolerance,  a 
broader  vision  of  life  and  humanity,  and  there- 
fore of  their  business,  which  is  merely  a  phase 
of  life  and  affairs. 

This  particular  suggestion  would  appear  to 
me  to  be  unnecessary  were  it  not  for  the  fact 
that  I  see  the  increasing  number  of  men  who 
think  that  their  business  or  profession  or  career 
is  the  important  thing,  and  that  in  these  the 
influence  of  woman  is  not  essential.  They 
are  frightfully  wTong  who  think  so.  I  am 
trying  to  give  practical  suggestions  to  young 
men.  Therefore  I  emphasize  the  practical 
value  of  the  influence  of  women. 

Remember  that  most  great  men  have  been 
331 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

discovered  by  women,  and  that  nearly  all  of 
them  have  had  her  for  their  inspiration. 

The  value  of  woman's  society  on  character 
and  intellect  is  above  that  of  the  conversation 
of  the  most  learned  and  experienced  men.  It 
is  the  elemental  and  natural  in  her  that  give 
a  perspective  of  life  and  its  larger  purposes 
that  man  alone  cannot  possibly  secure. 

The  sum  of  practical  wisdom  for  young  men 
is  to  keep  close  to  the  elemental  principles.  I 
think  Marcus  Aurelius  says,  in  his  philosophy, 
"  Let  your  principles  be  few  and  elemental." 
And  here  again  the  Bible  puts  it  even  better 
than  this  glorious  old  Stoic,  directing  us  "to 
do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk 
humbly  with  thy  God." 

Above  all  things,  do  not  lose  your  con- 
fidence in  your  fellow  men.  You  are  not  a  very 
great  man  if  you  are  not  great  enough  to 
stand  betrayal.  You  would  better  have  your 
confidence  broken  a  dozen  times  a  day  than  to 
fall  into  the  attitude  of  universal  suspicion. 

Keep  your  sweet  faith  in  our  common  hu- 
manity, do  not  excite  youi'  nerves  and  intel- 
lect by  intoxicants,  keep  close  to  the  saving 
and  elevating  influence  of  women,  and  then — 
go  ahead  and  work  as  hard  as  you  please,  be 
as  keen  as  you  choose,  fight  as  savagely  as  you 

332 


NEGATIVE    FUNDAMENTALS 

like,  and  there  is  no  power  that  can  stay  your 
conquest  of  the  world;  for  the  very  nature  of 
things  themselves  and  the  whole  order  of  the 
universe  are  your  allies  and  your  servants. 
But  do  not  get  the  impression  that  you  are  to 
be  maudlinly  "  good."  Oh,  no!  that  is  as  fatal 
almost  as  wickedness. 


333 


X 

THE  YOUNG  MAN  AND  THE  NATION 

You  are  an  American — remember  that ;  and 
be  proud  of  it,  too.  It  is  the  noblest  circum- 
stance in  your  hfe.  Think  what  it  means: 
The  greatest  people  on  earth — to  be  one  of 
that  people;  the  most  powerful  Nation — to  be 
a  member  of  that  Nation;  the  best  and  freest 
institutions  among  men — to  live  under  those 
institutions;  the  richest  land  under  any  flag — 
to  know  that  land  for  your  country  and  your 
home ;  the  most  fortunate  period  in  human  his- 
tory— to  live  in  such  a  day.  This  is  a  dim 
and  narrow  outline  of  what  it  means  to  be  an 
American^  Glory  in  that  fact,  therefore. 
Your  very  being  cannot  be  too  highly  charged 
with  Americanism.  And  do  not  be  afraid  to 
assert  it. 

The  world  forgives  the  egotist  of  patriotism. 
"  We  Germans  fear  God,  and  nothing  else !  " 
thundered  Bismarck  on  closing  his  greatest 
speech  before  the  Reichstag.  It  was  the  very 
frenzy  of  pride  of  race  and  country.     Yet 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   NATION 

even  his  enemies  applauded.  If  it  was  narrow, 
it  was  grandly  patriotic.  It  was  more:  it  ap- 
pealed to  the  elemental  in  their  breasts. 

Love  of  one's  own  is  a  universal  and  death- 
less passion,  common  not  only  to  human  beings 
but  also  shared  by  all  animate  creation.  Be  an 
American,  therefore,  to  the  uttermost  lunit 
of  consciousness  and  feeling.  Thank  God 
each  day  that  your  lot  has  fallen  beneath  the 
Stars  and  Stripes.  It  is  a  sacred  flag.  There 
is  only  one  holier  emblem  known  to  man. 

You  have  American  conditions  about  you 
every  day,  and  so  their  value  and  advantage 
become  commonplace  and  unnoted.  To  any 
young  man  afflicted  with  the  disease  of  think- 
ing life  hard  and  burdens  heavy  in  this  Repub- 
lic, I  know  of  no  remedy  equal  to  a  trip  abroad. 
You  will  find  things  to  admire  in  France ;  you 
will  applaud  things  in  Germany;  you  will  see 
much  in  other  lands  that  suggests  modifica- 
tions of  American  methods. 

But  after  you  have  traveled  all  over  the 
earth;  after  you  have  seen  Teutonic  system 
made  ten  times  more  perfect  in  Japan  and 
Slav  patience  outdone  in  China — in  short, 
after  you  circle  the  globe  and  sojourn  among 
its  peoples,  you  will  come  home  a  living, 
breathing,  thinking  Fom-th  of  July. 

335 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND   THE    WORLD 

Of  course  I  do  not  mean  that  we  are  per- 
fect— we  are  still  crude;  or  that  we  have  not 
made  mistakes — we  have  rioted  in  error;  or 
that  other  nations  cannot  teach  us  something — 
we  can  learn  greatly  from  them,  and  we  will. 
But  this  is  the  point  as  it  affects  you,  young 
man:  Among  all  the  uncounted  millions  of 
human  beings  on  this  earth,  none  has  the  op- 
portunities to  make  the  most  of  life  that  the 
young  American  has. 

No  government  now  existing  or  described 
by  history  gives  you  such  liberty  of  effort,  or 
scatters  before  and  around  you  such  chances. 
No  soil  now  occupied  by  any  separate  na- 
tion is  so  bountiful  or  resourceful.  No  other 
people  have  our  American  unwearied  spirit 
of  youth.  The  composite  brain  of  no  other 
nation  yeasts  in  thought  and  ideas  like  the 
combined  intellect  of  the  American  millions. 

For,  look  you,  our  institutions  invite  every 
man  to  do  his  best.  There  is  j)ositively  no  po- 
sition which  a  man  of  sufficient  mind,  energy, 
and  character  cannot  obtain,  no  reward  he  can- 
not win.  Everybody,  therefore,  is  literally 
"  putting  in  his  best  licks  "  in  America.  In 
other  countries  there  is  in  comparison  a  general 
atmosphere  of  "what's  the  use?" — a  com- 
parative slumberousness  of  activity  and  effort. 

336 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND    THE   NATION 

Then,  again,  the  American  people  are  made 
up  of  the  world's  boldest  spirits  and  the  de- 
scendants of  such.  The  Puritans,  who  gave 
force,  direction,  and  elevation  to  our  national 
thought  and  purpose,  were  the  stoutest  hearts, 
the  most  productive  minds  of  their  time.  Their 
characteristics  have  not  disappeared  from  their 
children. 

The  same  is  true,  generally,  but  of  course  in 
an  infinitely  lesser  degree,  of  most  of  our  im- 
migrants. Usually  it  is  the  nervy  and  imagi- 
native men  who  go  to  a  new  country.  Our  own 
pioneers  were  endowed  with  daring  and  vision. 
They  had  the  courage  and  initiative  to  leave  the 
scarcely  warmed  beds  of  their  new-made  homes 
and  push  farther  on  into  the  wilderness. 

The  blue-eyed,  light-haired  Swede  who, 
among  all  in  his  little  Scandinavian  village, 
decides  to  come  to  America,  the  Irishman  who 
does  the  like,  are,  for  the  most  part,  the 
hopeful,  venturesome,  self-reliant  members  of 
their  communities  across  the  sea.  The  Ger- 
man who  turns  his  face  from  the  Fatherland, 
seeking  a  new  home  half  across  the  world, 
brings  us  some  of  the  most  vigorous  blood  in 
the  Kaiser's  Empire.  Such  men  believe  in 
better  things — have  the  will  to  try  to  get  those 
better  things. 

337 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

Thus,  the  American  Republic  is  an  absorb- 
ent of  the  optimism  of  the  world.  We  at- 
tract to  ourselves  the  children  of  faith  and 
hope  among  the  common  people  of  other  na- 
tions. And  these  are  the  tj^pes  we  are  after. 
They  are  the  most  vital,  the  least  exhausted. 
I  should  not  want  "  the  flower  "  of  other  na- 
tions to  immigrate  to  our  shores.  Nature  is 
through  with  them,  and  they  must  be  renewed 
from  below.  Do  not  object  to  human  raw  ma- 
terial for  our  citizenship.  One  or  two  genera- 
tions will  produce  the  finished  product. 

What  says  Emerson: 

"  The  lord  is  the  peasant  that  was, 
The  peasant  the  lord  that  shall  be. 
The  lord  is  hay,  the  peasant  grass, 
One  dry  and  one  the  living  tree." 

The  purpose  of  our  institutions  is  to  manu- 
facture manhood. 

Make  it  impossible  for  the  criminal  and  dis- 
eased, the  vicious  and  the  decadent,  to  come  to 
us;  bar  out  those  who  seek  our  country  merely 
because  they  cannot  subsist  in  their  own,  and 
you  will  find  that  the  remainder  of  our  immi- 
grants are  valuable  additions  to  our  popula- 
tions. Don't  despise  these  common  people 
who  come  to  us  from  other  lands. 

338 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE  NATION 

Don't  despise  the  common  people  anywhere 
on  earth.  The  Master  did  not  go  to  the  "  first 
citizens  "  for  His  followers.  He  selected  the 
hmnblest.  He  chose  fishermen.  A  promoter 
of  a  financial  enterprise  does  not  do  this. 
But  the  Saviour  was  not  a  promoter;  He  was 
teacher,  reformer,  Redeemer. 

Then,  too,  consider  our  imperial  location  on 
the  globe.  If  all  the  minds  of  all  the  statesmen 
who  ever  lived  were  combined  into  one  vast  in- 
tellect of  world-wisdom,  and  if  this  great  com- 
posite brain  should  take  an  eternity  to  plan, 
it  could  not  devise  a  land  better  located  for 
power  and  world-dominance  than  the  Amer- 
ican Republic. 

On  the  east  is  Europe,  with  an  ocean  be- 
tween. This  ocean  is  a  highway  for  commerce 
and  a  fluid  fortress  for  defense,  an  open  gate- 
way of  trade  and  a  bulwark  of  peace. 

On  the  west  is  the  Orient,  with  its  multitude 
of  miUions.  Between  Asia  and  ourselves  is 
again  an  ocean.  And  again  this  ocean  is  an 
invitation  to  effort  and  a  condition  of  safety. 

The  Republic  is  thus  enthroned  between  the 
two  great  oceans  of  the  world.  Its  seat  of 
power  commands  both  Europe  and  Cathay. 

On  the  north  is  slowly  building  a  great  peo- 
ple, developing  a  dominion  as  imperial  as  our 

339 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

own.  The  same  speech  and  blood  of  kinship 
make  certain  the  ultimate  union  with  our  vital 
brothers  across  our  northern  frontier. 

To  the  south  is  a  group  of  governments  over 
whom  the  sheer  operation  of  natural  forces  is 
already  establishing  a  sort  of  American  over- 
sight and  suzerainty. 

Mark,  now,  our  harbors.  Behold  how  cun- 
ningly the  Master  Strategist  has  placed  along 
our  coasts  great  ports  from  which  communica- 
tion with  the  ends  of  earth  natm'ally  radiates. 

Consider,  too,  the  sweep  of  the  ocean's  cur- 
rents in  relation  to  this  country.  Observe  the 
direction  and  effect  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  and 
of  the  great  current  of  the  Pacific  seas  upon 
our  coasts.  Follow  on  your  map  the  direction 
of  our  rivers,  and  see  how  nicely  Nature  has 
designed  the  tracery  of  the  Republic's  water- 
ways. 

In  short,  ponder  over  the  incomparable 
position  of  this  America  of  yours — this  home 
and  country  of  yours — on  the  surface  of  the 
globe.  When  you  think  of  it,  not  only  will 
your  mind  be  uplifted  in  pride,  but  you  will 
sink  to  your  knees  in  prayerful  gratitude 
that  the  Father  has  given  you  such  a  land, 
with  such  opportunities,  for  your  earthly  habi- 
tation. 

340 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE  NATION 

Attempt  now  to  estimate  our  resources. 
Your  mathematics  are  not  equal  to  it.  The 
available  productivity  of  the  JMississippi  Val- 
ley exceeds  the  supply  of  all  the  fertile  regions 
of  fable  or  history.  The  country  watered  by 
the  Columbia  or  the  Oregon  surpasses  in 
wealth-producing  power  the  valleys  of  the  Nile 
or  the  Euphrates  in  ancient  times. 

Our  deposits  of  coal  and  iron  already  under 
development  are  equalled  nowhere  on  earth  ex- 
cept perhaps  by  the  unopened  mines  of  China ; 
and  greater  fields  of  ore  and  fuel  than  those 
which  we  are  now  working  are  known  posi- 
tively to  exist  within  our  dominions.  The  mere 
indexing  of  America's  material  possibilities 
well-nigh  stuns  credulity. 

But  all  these  are  definite  and  physical 
things,  things  you  can  measui-e  or  weigh. 
More  valuable  than  all  of  these  combined 
are  our  American  institutions  and  our  exalted 
National  ideals. 

You  can  meditate  all  day  on  the  reasons  for 
pride  in  your  Americanism,  and  each  reason 
you  think  of  will  suggest  others.  The  exam- 
ples I  have  given  are  only  hints.  Be  proud  of 
your  Americanism,  therefore — earnestly,  ag- 
gressively, fervently  proud  of  youi'  American- 
ism.   I  like  to  see  patriotism  have  a  religious 

341 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

ardor.  It  will  put  you  in  harmony  with  the 
people  you  are  living  among,  which,  I  repeat, 
is  the  first  condition  of  success. 

Also  it  puts  a  vigor,  manliness,  mental  pro- 
ductivity into  you.  JVIake  it  a  practise,  when 
going  to  your  business  or  your  work  each 
morning,  to  reflect  how  blessed  a  thing  it  is  to 
be  an  American,  and  why  it  is  a  blessed  thing. 
Then  observe  how  your  backbone  stiffens  as 
you  think,  how  your  step  becomes  light  and 
firm,  how  the  very  soul  of  you  floods  with  a 
kind  of  sunlight  of  confidence. 

There  was  a  time  when  each  one  of  that  mas- 
terful race  that  lived  upon  the  Tiber's  banks 
in  the  days  of  the  Eternal  City's  greatest  glory 
believed  that  "  to  be  a  Roman  was  greater  than 
to  be  a  king."  And  the  ideals  of  civic  duty 
were  more  nearly  realized  in  that  golden  hour 
of  human  history  than  they  had  ever  been  be- 
fore— or  than  they  have  ever  been  since  until 
now. 

Very  well,  young  man.  If  to  be  a  Roman 
then  was  greater  than  to  be  a  king,  Avhat  is  it 
to  be  an  American  now? 

Think  of  it!  To  be  an  American  at  the 
beginning  of  the  twentieth  century! 

Ponder  over  these  eleven  words  for  ten  min- 
utes every  day.    After  a  while  you  will  begin 

342 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   NATION 

to  appreciate  your  country,  its  institutions,  and 
the  possibilities  which  both  produce. 

Realizing,  then,  that  you  are  an  American, 
and  that,  after  all,  this  is  a  richer  possession 
than  royal  birth,  make  up  your  mind  that  you 
will  be  worthy  of  it,  and  then  go  ahead  and 
be  worthy  of  it. 

Be  a  part  of  our  institutions.  And  under- 
stand clearly  what  our  institutions  are.  They 
are  not  a  set  of  written  laws.  American  in- 
stitutions are  citizens  in  action.  American 
institutions  are  the  American  people  in  the 
tangible  and  physical  process  of  governing 
themselves. 

A  book  ought  to  be  written  describing  how 
our  government  actually  works.  I  do  not 
mean  the  formal  machinery  of  administration 
and  law-making  at  Washington  or  at  our 
state  capitals.  These  multitudes  of  officers 
and  groups  of  departments,  these  governors 
and  presidents,  these  legislatures  and  con- 
gresses, are  not  the  government;  they  are 
the  instruments  of  government. 

The  people  are  the  government.  What  said 
Lincoln  in  his  greatest  utterance?  "  A  govern- 
ment of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by 
the  people,''''  are  the  great  American's  words. 
And  Lmcoln  knew. 

343 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

The  real  thing  is  found  at  the  American  fire- 
side. This  is  the  forum  of  both  primary  and 
final  discussion.  These  firesides  are  the  hives 
whence  the  voters  sM^arm  to  the  polls.  The 
family  is  the  American  political  unit.  Men 
and  measures,  candidates  and  policies,  are 
there  discussed,  and  their  fate  and  that  of  the 
Republic  determined.  This  is  the  first  phase 
of  our  government,  the  first  manifestation  of 
our  institutions. 

Then  comes  the  machinery  through  which 
these  millions  of  homes  "  run  the  government." 
I  cannot  in  the  limited  space  of  this  paper  de- 
scribe this  system  of  the  people ;  the  best  I  can 
do  is  to  take  a  type,  an  example.  In  every 
county  of  every  state  of  the  Nation  each  party 
has  its  committee.  This  committee  consists  of 
a  man  from  each  precinct  in  each  township  of 
the  county*  These  precinct  committeemen  are 
chosen  by  a  process  of  natural  selection.  They 
are  men  who  have  an  aptitude  for  marshaling 
their  fellow  men. 

In  the  country  districts  of  the  Republic  they 
are  usually  men  of  good  character,  good  abil- 
ity, good  health,  alert,  sleepless,  strong-willed. 
They  are  men  who  have  enough  mental  vi- 
tality to  believe  in  something.  When  they 
cease  to  be  effective  they  are  dropped,  and 

344 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   NATION 

new  men  substituted  by  a  sort  of  common 
consent.  There  are  nearly  two  hundred  thou- 
sand precinct  committeemen  in  the  United 
States. 

These  men  are  a  part  of  American  institu- 
tions in  action.  They  work  all  the  time.  They 
talk  politics  and  think  politics  in  the  midst  of 
their  business  or  their  labor.  Their  casual 
conversation  with  or  about  every  family  within 
their  jurisdiction  keeps  them  constantly  and 
freshly  informed  of  the  tendency  of  public 
opinion. 

They  know  how  each  one  of  their  neighbors 
feels  on  the  subject  of  protection,  or  the  Phil- 
ippines, or  civil  service,  or  the  currency.  They 
know  the  views  of  every  voter  and  every 
voter's  wife  on  public  men.  They  imderstand 
whether  the  people  think  this  man  honest  and 
that  man  a  mere  pretender.  Tlie  consensus 
of  judgment  of  these  precinct  committee- 
men indicates  with  fair  accuracy  who  is  the 
"  strongest  man  "  for  his  party  to  nominate, 
and  what  policies  will  get  the  most  votes 
among  the  people. 

This  is  their  preliminary  work.  When  plat- 
forms have  been  formulated  and  candidates 
have  been  chosen,  these  men  develop  from  the 
partizan  passive  to  the  partizan  militant.  They 
23  345 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

know  those  who,  in  their  own  party,  are 
"  weakening,"  and  by  the  same  token  those 
who  are  "  weakening  "  in  the  other  party. 

They  know  just  what  argument  will  reach 
each  man,  just  what  speaker  the  people  of 
their  respective  sections  want  to  hear  upon 
public  questions.  They  keep  everybody  sup- 
plied with  the  right  kind  of  literature  from 
their  party's  view-point. 

They  either  take  the  poll  of  their  precinct 
or  see  that  it  is  taken;  and  that  means  the 
putting  down  in  a  book  the  name  of  each 
voter,  his  past  political  allegiance,  his  present 
political  inclinations,  the  probable  ballot  he 
will  cast,  etc. 

Not  many  of  these  men  do  this  work  for 
money  or  office.  There  are  too  many  of  them 
to  hope  for  reward.  Primarily  they  do  it 
because  they  are  naturally  Americans,  because 
they  have  the  gift  of  government,  because  they 
like  to  help  "  run  the  show."  They  are  useful 
elements  of  our  political  life,  and  they  are 
modest.  They  seldom  ask  anything  for  them- 
selves. 

They  do  require,  however,  that  their  opin- 
ions shall  be  taken  into  account  as  to  ap- 
pointments to  office  made  from  their  county, 
and  of  course  they  make  their  opinions  felt  in 

34G 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   NATION 

all  nominating  conventions.  Without  these 
men  our  "  American  institutions  "  would  look 
beautiful  on  paper  but  they  would  work  halt- 
ingly. They  would  move  sluggishly.  They 
might  even  rust,  and  fall  to  pieces  from  decay. 

This  much  space  has  been  given  to  the  politi- 
cal precinct  committeeman  because,  as  I  have 
said,  he  is  a  type.  He  is  the  man  who  sees  that 
the  "  citizen  "  does  not  forget  his  citizenship. 
This  great  body  of  men,  fresh  from  the  peo- 
ple, of  the  people,  living  among  the  people, 
are  perpetually  renewed  from  the  ranks  of  the 
people. 

All  this  occurs,  as  has  been  said,  by  a  process 
of  natural  selection.  The  same  process  se- 
lects from  this  great  company  of  "  workers  " 
county,  district,  and  state  committeemen — 
county,  district,  and  state  chairmen.  And 
the  process  continues  until  it  culminates  in  our 
great  National  committees,  headed  by  master- 
ful captains  of  popular  government,  under 
whose  generalship  the  enormous  work  of 
National  and  state  campaigns  is  conducted. 

Very  well.  If  you  appreciate  your  Ameri- 
canism, young  man,  show  it  by  being  a  part 
of  American  institutions.  Be  one  of  these 
precinct  committeemen,  or  a  county  commit- 
teeman, or  a  state  committeeman,  or  a  worker 

347 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

of  some  kind.  If  you  do  not,  a  bad  man  will ; 
and  that  will  mean  bad  politics  and  bad  gov- 
ernment. 

You  see,  this  whole  question  of  good  gov- 
ernment is  right  up  to  you.  You  are  the  rem- 
edy for  bad  government,  young  man — you  and 
not  somebody  else,  not  some  theory.  So  be  a 
committeeman  or  some  sort  of  a  "  worker  "  in 
real  politics.  Help  run  our  institutions  your- 
self j,  or,  rather,  be  a  part  of  our  institutions 
yourself. 

If  you  have  neither  the  time  nor  aptitude 
for  such  active  work,  at  least  be  a  citizen.  That 
does  not  mean  merely  that  you  shall  go  to  the 
polls  to  vote.  It  does  not  even  mean  that  you 
shall  go  to  the  primaries  only.  It  means  a 
great  deal  more  than  that. 

At  the  very  least  be  a  member  of  an  active 
political  club  which  is  working  for  your  party's 
success.  There  are  such  clubs  in  most  wards 
of  our  cities. 

They  are  the  power-houses  of  our  political 
system.  Party  sentiment  finds  its  first  public 
expression  there — often  it  has  its  beginnings 
there  in  the  free  conversations  which  character- 
ize such  American  political  societies.  You  will 
find  the  "leaders"  gathering  there,  too;  and 
in  the   talks   among   these  men   those   plans 

348 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   NATION 

gradually  take  form  by  which  nominations  are 
made  and  even  platforms  are  formulated. 

These  "  leaders  "  are  men  who,  in  the  practi- 
cal work  of  politics,  develop  ability,  activity, 
and  effectiveness.  There  is  a  great  deal  of 
sneering  at  the  lesser  political  leaders  in 
American  politics.  They  are  called  "  politi- 
cians," and  the  word  is  used  as  a  term  of 
reproach,  and  sometimes  deservedly.  But  or- 
dinarily these  "  leaders,"  especially  in  the 
country  districts  of  the  Republic,  are  men 
who  keep  the  machinery  of  free  institutions 
running. 

The  influence  of  no  boss  or  political  gen- 
eral can  retain  a  young  man  in  leadership. 
Favoritism  may  give  you  the  place  of  "  local 
leader  " ;  but  nothing  but  natural  qualities  can 
keep  you  in  it.  The  more  we  have  of  honest, 
high-grade  "  local  leaders,"  the  better. 

Whether  you,  young  man,  become  one  or 
not,  you  ought  at  least  to  be  a  part  of  the 
organization,  and  work  with  the  other  young 
men  who  are  leaders.  But  be  sure  to  make 
one  condition  to  your  fealty — require  them  to 
be  honest. 

"  I  have  no  time  for  politics,"  said  a  business 
man;  "it  takes  all  my  time  and  strength  to 
attend  to  my  business." 

349 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

That  means  that  he  has  no  time  for  free 
institutions.  It  means  that  this  "  blood-bought 
privilege  "  which  we  call  "  the  priceless  Amer- 
ican ballot "  is  not  worth  as  much  to  him  as 
the  turning  of  a  dollar,  or  even  as  the  loss  of 
a  single  moment's  personal  comfort. 

*'  Come  down  to  the  club  to-night;  we  are 
going  to  talk  over  the  coming  campaign,"  said 
one  man  to  another  in  an  American  city  of 
moderate  size  and  ideal  conditions. 

"Excuse  me,"  was  the  answer;  "we  have 
a  theater  party  on  hand  to-night." 

Yes;  but  while  the  elegant  gentleman  of 
society  enjoys  the  witty  conversation  of  charm- 
ing women,  and  while  the  business  man  is 
attending  to  his  personal  affairs  and  nothing 
else,  the  other  fellows  are  determining  nomina- 
tions, and  under  the  direction  of  able  and  crea- 
tive political  captains  shaping  the  policies  of 
parties,  and  in  the  end  the  fate  of  the  Nation. 

Of  course  that  is  all  right  if  that  is  your 
conception  of  American  citizenship.  But  if 
this  is  going  to  be  "a  government  of  the  peo- 
ple and  by  the  people,"  you,  as  one  of  the 
people,  have  got  to  take  part  in  it.  That 
means  you  have  got  to  take  part  in  it  all  the 
time. 

Occasional  spasms  of  violent  civic  virtue 
350 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   NATION 

amount  to  little  in  their  permanent  results. 
They  only  scare  bad  men  for  a  day  or  two. 
Their  very  ardor  soon  burns  them  out.  The 
citizen  has  got  to  do  more  than  that — ^he  has 
got  to  take  an  every-day-and-every-week  in- 
terest in  our  civic  life.  If  he  does  not,  our 
brave  and  beautiful  experiment  in  self-govern- 
ment will  surely  fail  and  we  shall  be  ruled  not 
even  by  a  trained  and  skilful  tyrant,  but  by 
a  series  of  coarse  and  corrupt  oligarchies. 

In  ancient  Israel  a  certain  proportion  of  the 
year's  produce  was  given  to  the  Temple.  In 
like  manner,  if  popular  government  means 
anything  to  you,  you  have  got  to  give  up  a 
certain  portion  of  your  time  and  money  to 
being  a  part  of  this  popular  government. 

Just  this  is  the  most  important  matter 
in  our  whole  National  life.  Recently  there 
died  the  greatest  master  of  practical  politics 
America  has  produced.  Firmly  he  had  kept 
his  steel  hand  uj)on  his  state  for  thirty  years. 
A  dozen  times  were  mighty  efforts  made  to 
break  his  over-lordship.  Each  time  his  re- 
sourcefulness, audacity,  and  genius  confounded 
his  enemies.  But  finally  that  undefeated  con- 
queror. Death,  took  this  old  veteran  captive. 

He  left  an  able  successor  in  his  seat  of 
power,  but  a  man  without  that  prestige  of 

351 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

invulnerability  which  a  lifetime  of  political 
combat  and  victory  had  given  the  deceased 
leader.  "  Here,"  said  every  one,  "  is  an  op- 
portunity to  overthrow  the  machine."  Within 
a  few  months  an  election  occurred — not  a 
National  election,  but  one  in  which  the  "  ma- 
chine "  might  have  been  crippled. 

But,  mirahilc  dictu,  the  "  good  people,"  the 
"  reformers,"  the  "  society  "  and  "  business  " 
classes,  did  not  come  out  to  vote.  They  not 
onl}^  formed  no  plans  to  set  up  a  new  order  of 
things,  they  did  not  even  go  to  the  polls.  Yet 
these  were  the  descendants  of  the  men  who 
founded  the  Nation  and  who  set  free  institu- 
tions in  practical  operation. 

This  shows  how  American  institutions,  like 
everything  else,  have  in  themselves  the  seeds 
of  death  if  they  are  not  properly  exercised. 
When  the  great  body  of  our  citizens  become 
afflicted  with  civic  paralj'-sis,  it  is  the  easiest 
thing  in  the  world  for  the  strong  and  resource- 
ful "  boss,"  by  careful  selection  of  his  pre- 
cinct committeemen  and  other  local  workers 
all  over  his  state,  to  seize  power — legislative, 
executive,  and  even  judicial.  It  has  been  done 
more  than  once  in  certain  places  in  this  country. 

Where  it  is  successful,  the  Rejmhlic  no 
longer  endures.     The  people  no  longer  rule; 

352 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   NATION 

an  oligarchy  rules  in  the  name  of  the  people. 
And  where  this  is  true,  the  people  deserve  their 
fate.  And  so,  young  man,  if  you  do  not  ex- 
pect this  fate  to  overtake  the  entire  countryr 
you  have  got  to  get  right  into  "  the  mix  of 
things." 

You,  I  say,  not  some  other  man,  but  yoUj 
you  J,  you.  You — you  yourself — you  are  the 
one  who  is  responsible.  Quit  your  aloofness. 
Get  out  of  any  clubs  and  desert  all  associations 
which  sneer  at  active  work  in  ward  and  pre- 
cinct.   Do  not  get  political  locomotor  ataxia. 

It  was  a  fine  thing  that  was  said  by  a  politi- 
cal leader  to  a  singularly  brilliant  young  man 
from  college  who,  with  letters  of  unlimited 
indorsement  from  the  presidents  of  our  three 
greatest  universities,  asked  for  a  humble  place 
in  the  diplomatic  service.  He  wanted  to  make 
that  service  his  career. 

"  I  like  your  style,"  said  the  man  whose 
favor  the  young  fellow  was  soliciting.  "  Your 
ability  is  excellent,  your  recommendations  per- 
fect, your  character  above  reproach,  your  fam- 
ily a  guarantee  of  your  moral  and  mental 
worth.  But  you  have  done  nothing  yet  among 
real  men. 

"  Go  back  to  your  home ;  get  out  of  the 
exclusive  atmosphere  of  your  perfumed  sur- 

353 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

romidings;  join  the  hardest  working  politi- 
cal club  of  3"our  party  in  your  city;  report  to 
the  local  leader  for  active  work;  mingle  with 
those  who  toil  and  sweat. 

"  Do  this  until  you  '  get  a  standing  '  among 
other  young  men  who  are  doing  things.  Thus 
you  will  get  close  to  the  people  whom,  after 
all,  you  are  going  to  represent.  Also  this  con- 
tact with  the  sharp,  keen  minds  of  the  most 
forceful  fellows  in  your  town  will  be  the  best 
training  you  can  get  for  the  beginning  of  your 
diplomatic  career." 

"  Now  let  me  tell  you  this,"  said  President 
Roosevelt  to  this  same  young  man:  "  You  may 
have  a  small  under-secretaryship ;  but  let  me 
tell  j^ou  this,"  said  he;  "  do  not  take  it  just  yet. 
You  are  only  out  of  college.  Take  a  post- 
graduate course  with  the  people.  Get  down  to 
earth.  See  what  kind  of  beings  these  Ameri- 
cans are.    Find  out  from  personal  contact. 

"  If  you  belong  to  exclusive  clubs,  quit 
them,  and  spend  the  time  you  would  otherwise 
spend  in  their  cold  and  miprofitable  atmos- 
phere in  mingling  with  the  people,  the  com- 
mon people,  merchants  and  street-car  drivers, 
bankers  and  working  men. 

"  Finally,  when  you  get  your  post,  do  as 
John  Hay  did — resign  in  a  year,  or  a  couple 

354 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   NATION 

of  years,  and  come  home  to  your  own  country, 
and. again  for  a  year  or  two  get  down  among 
your  fellow  Americans.  In  short,"  said  he, 
"be  an  American,  and  never  stop  being  an 
American." 

That  is  it,  young  man — that  is  the  whole 
law  and  the  gospel  of  this  subject.  Be  an 
American.  And  do  not  be  an  American  of 
imagination.  You  cannot  be  an  American  by 
seeing  visions  and  dreaming  dreams.  You 
cannot  be  an  American  by  reading  about  them. 
Professor  Munsterberg's  volume  will  not 
make  you  an  American  any  more  than  a  study 
of  tactics  out  of  a  book  will  make  you  a  soldier. 

It  is  the  field  that  makes  you  a  soldier.  It 
is  marching  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  other 
soldiers  that  makes  you  a  soldier.  It  is  min- 
gling with  other  Americans  that  makes  you 
an  American.  Our  eighty  millions  will  make 
3^ou  American.  Keep  close  to  them.  The  soil 
will  make  you  American.    Keep  close  to  it. 

Utilize  your  enthusiasms.  Do  not  neutralize 
them  by  permitting  them  to  be  vague  and  im- 
personal. Be  for  men  and  against  men.  Be 
for  policies  and  against  pohcies.  And  remem- 
ber always  that  it  is  far  more  important  to 
be  for  somebody  and  something  than  to  be 
against. 

355 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

There  is  an  excellent  though  fortunately  a 
small  class  of  citizens  in  this  and  every  other 
country  who  are  never  for  anybody  but  always 
against  somebodj'.  Frequently  these  men  are 
right  in  their  opposition ;  but  their  force  is  dis- 
sipated because  they  are  habitually  negative. 

I  know  of  nothing  better  for  a  young  man's 
character  than  that  he  should  become  the  ad- 
mirer and  follower  of  some  noted  public  man. 
Let  your  discipleship  have  fervor.  Permit 
your  youth  to  be  natural.  But  be  sure  that  the 
political  leader  to  whom  you  attach  yourself 
is  worthy  of  your  devotion. 

Usually  this  will  settle  itself.  Public  men 
will  impress  you  not  only  by  their  deeds,  words, 
and  general  attitude;  but  also  through  a  sort 
of  psychic  sense  within  you  which  illumines 
and  interprets  all  they  say  and  do,  and  makes 
you  understand  them  even  better  than  their 
spoken  words. 

This  subconscious  intelligence  which  the 
people  come  to  have  of  a  public  man  is  seldom 
wrong. 

Somehow  or  other  the  people  know  instinc- 
tively those  who  really  are  unselfishly  devoted 
to  the  Nation's  interest.  In  the  end  they  never 
fail  to  know  the  man  who  is  honest. 

This  instinctive  estimate  of  the  qualities 
356 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   NATION 

of  mind  and  soul  of  public  men  will  prob- 
ably select  for  you  the  captain  to  whom  you 
are  to  give  your  allegiance.  Be  faithful  and 
earnest  in  your  championship  of  him.  In 
this  way  you  make  your  political  life  personal 
and  human. 

You  give  to  the  policies  in  which  you  believe 
the  warmth  and  vitality  of  flesh  and  blood. 
And,  best  of  all,  you  increase  within  yourself 
human  sympathies  and  devotions,  and  thus 
make  yourself  more  and  more  one  of  the 
people  who  in  due  time,  in  your  turn,  it  may 
be  your  duty  to  lead,  if  the  qualities  of  leader- 
ship are  in  you. 

This  matter  of  leadership  among  public  men 
is  becoming  more  and  more  important,  because 
personality  in  politics  is  meaning  more  every 
day.  Obeying  generally,  then,  your  instinct 
as  to  the  public  men  whom  you  intend  to  fol- 
low, subject  your  choice  to  the  corrective  of 
cold  and  careful  analysis. 

It  is  probably  true  that  the  greatest  danger 
of  our  future  is  the  peril  of  classes,  and  insep- 
arably connected  with  classes  the  menace  of 
demagogy.  The  last  decade  has  revealed  signs 
that  the  demagogue,  in  the  modern  meaning 
of  that  word,  is  making  his  appearance  in 
American  civic  life. 

357 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

Such  men  always  seize  the  most  attractive 
*'  cause  "  as  argument  to  the  people  for  their 
support.  They  are  quite  as  willing  to  pose  as 
the  especial  apostles  of  righteousness  and 
purity  as  they  are  to  enact  the  character  of 
the  divinely  appointed  tribunes  of  patriot- 
ism. Whatever  the  political  fashion  of  the 
day  may  be,  your  demagogue  will  appeal  to  it. 
It  makes  no  difference  what  methods  he  finds 
necessary  to  use,  so  that  he  can  achieve  the 
power  and  consequence  which  is  his  only  pur- 
pose. 

If  the  ruling  tendency  be  for  honesty,  these 
men  will  make  that  serve  their  purpose,  or 
commercialism,  or  expansion,  or  war,  or  peace, 
or  what  not.  There  is  no  conviction  about 
them.  Sometimes  such  a  man  will  represent 
himself  as  a  great  conservative.  He  does  this 
not  because  he  is  conservative  (sometimes  he 
does  not  even  know  what  that  word  really 
means),  but  because  he  thinks  by  associating 
his  name  with  this  word  he  can  capture  the 
"  solid  "  elements  among  the  people,  business 
men  and  the  like. 

These  illustrations  can  be  multiplied  with- 
out limit.  They  are  as  numerous  as  the 
"  issues  "  which  can  be  used  to  influence  the 
people.     Beware  of  the  demagogue  in  what- 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE  NATION 

ever  guise  he  presents  himself.  Look  out  for 
the  play-actor  in  politics.  Whether  he  wear 
the  cloth  of  the  pulpit,  the  uniform  of  the  sol- 
dier, the  garment  of  the  reformer,  he  is  always 
the  same  at  heart,  never  for  the  people,  always 
for  himself ;  never  for  the  Nation  and  the 
future,  always  for  power  and  the  present. 

]Make  sure,  then,  that  the  captain  whom  you 
elect  to  follow  is  above  all  other  things  sin- 
cere. Insist  upon  his  being  genuine.  See  to 
it  that  he  is  intellectually  honest.  I  do  not 
mean  that  he  should  be  honest  in  money  mat- 
ters alone,  or  in  telling  the  truth  merely.  I 
mean  that  he  should  be  square  with  himself, 
as  well  as  with  you  and  the  world.  When  a 
public  man  is  honest  and  in  earnest,  you  know 
it- — know  it  without  knowing  why. 

It  is  safe  to  follow  such  a  man  as  this  even 
when  you  do  not  agree  with  all  of  his  public 
views.  You  know  that  he  is  honest  about 
them;  and  a  man  who  is  honest  within  himself 
will  change  his  views,  no  matter  how  dear  they 
may  be  to  him,  when  he  finds  that  he  is  mistaken 
about  them.  The  first  and  last  essential  of  the 
men  who  are  to  voice  the  opinion  and  enact  the 
purposes  of  the  American  people  is  an  honesty 
so  perfect  that  it  is  unconscious  of  itself. 

"  He  does  not  deserve  the  least  credit  for 
359 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

being  square,"  said  Dr.  Albert  Shaw,  the 
eminent  editor,  scholar,  and  publicist,  concern- 
ing a  public  man;  "he  was  born  that  way. 
His  mind  is  so  vipright  that  he  cannot  help 
saying  what  he  thinks.  It  would  be  impossible 
for  him  to  tell  you  or  the  people  a  falsehood. 
He  is  truth  personified.  His  honesty  works 
as  naturally  as  his  heart  beats,  quite  free  from 
the  influences  of  his  will." 

That  is  the  kind  of  a  political  leader  you 
ought  to  attach  yourself  to,  while  your  j^oung 
days  last  and  your  political  and  civic  character 
is  forming.  But  follow  no  man  who  is  striv- 
ing merely  to  advance  his  personal  interests. 
What  are  they  to  you?  Be  sure  that  the  man 
you  choose  for  your  chief  is  trying  to  do  some- 
thing for  the  Nation  rather  than  for  himself. 

Of  course  you  will  belong  to  some  political 
party.  That  is  all  right.  Be  a  partizan.  And 
be  a  hearty  partizan  while  you  are  about  it. 
But  do  not  be  a  narrow  one.  Never  forget 
that  parties  are  only  modes  of  political  action. 
They  are  not  sacred,  therefore.  So  never  mis- 
take partizanship  for  patriotism.  Remember 
always  that  your  only  reason  for  belonging 
to  any  particular  party  is  because  you  find 
that  the  best  method  of  being  an  American. 

When  your  party  is  fundamentally  wrong 
360 


THE    YOUNG  MAN   AND   THE   NATION 

on  some  absolutely  vital  question  of  principle 
which  affects  the  fate  of  the  Republic,  do  not 
hesitate  to  leave  it.  It  has  ceased  to  be  of  any 
use  to  you.  Because  your  political  association 
has  been  with  certain  men  is  no  reason  at  all  for 
continuing  it.  Or,  rather,  it  is  purely  a  senti- 
mental reason,  like  that  which  makes  the  com- 
panionship of  friends  so  dear,  or  the  comrade- 
ship of  soldiers  so  lasting. 

But  do  not  break  away  from  your  party 
merelj^  because  you  think  it  wrong  on  minor 
questions.  If  you  think  its  general  tendency 
light,  stay  loyally  with  it  through  its  commoii 
mistakes.  Try  to  prevent  those  mistakes  with- 
in the  party.  Fight  like  a  man  to  make  your 
party  take  the  right  course  on  every  question, 
big  or  little,  as  you  see  it. 

But  when  you  are  unable  to  convince  the 
majority  of  your  party  associates  that  they  are 
wrong;  when  they  think  that  you  are  the  per- 
son who  is  wrong,  fall  in  line  with  them  and 
march  in  the  ranks,  battling  even  more  vigor- 
ously than  you  would  had  you  prevailed.  If 
the  majority  were  right  and  you  were  wrong, 
you  ought  to  help  execute  their  views.  If  the 
majority  were  wrong  and  you  were  right,  the 
earlier  that  fact  is  demonstrated  the  better  for 
you  and  everybody. 

24  361 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

So  keep  step  with  your  rank  and  file,  whetlier 
your  party  does  what  you  think  it  ought  to 
do  or  not  on  matters  of  passing  moment.  But 
I  repeat,  on  large  issues  which  come  to  your 
conscience — on  questions  which  you  think 
affect  the  destiny  of  the  Nation^,  you  are  a  trai- 
tor to  the  Republic  if,  in  spite  of  your  convic- 
tions, you  stand  by  your  party  and  against 
your  country. 

But  to  break  with  your  party  on  minor 
issues  is  foolish.  A  certain  class  is  coming  to 
regard  leaving  one's  party  as  a  smart  thing. 
But  it  is  not  a  smart  thing.  Quitting  your 
party  does  not  necessarily  mean  independence. 
It  may  mean  that,  and  then  again  it  may 
mean  stupidity;  and  still  again  it  may  only 
mean  a  "  sore  head,"  as  the  political  phrase 
has  it. 

In  a  country  as  old  as  ours  there  finally 
comes  to  be  in  politics  a  fundamental  division. 
There  is  the  constructive  and  progressive  on 
the  one  side,  and  the  destructive  and  reaction- 
ary on  the  other  side.  These  are  merely  the 
centripetal  and  centrifugal  forces  of  nature  at 
work  in  human  society.  Usuallj^  it  is  found 
that  one  of  these  parties  is  naturally  the  Gov- 
erning Party,  and  the  other  one  is  naturally 
the  Party  of  Oj)position. 
,      362 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   NATION 

Not  only  your  judgment  but  your  instincts 
will  tell  you,  young  man,  to  which  one  of 
these  forces  j^ou  belong.  Each  has  its  uses. 
You  can  well  serve  your  country  in  either 
organization.  It  is  merely  a  question  as  to 
whether  you  are  in  character  and  tempera- 
ment a  builder,  a  doer  of  things,  or  a  critic  of 
things  done  and  the  doing  of  them.  Each  is 
necessary. 

I  have  no  quarrel  with  your  partizan  creed, 
no  matter  what  it  is.  That  is  your  business. 
But  whatever  you  are,  be  National.  Be  broad. 
Do  not  be  deceived  by  catchwords.  Remem- 
ber that  this  is  a  Nation  in  the  making.  When 
the  first  railroad  was  built  across  the  bounda- 
ries of  states  it  modified  old-time  interpreta- 
tions of  our  Constitution. 

Telegraph  and  telephone  wires,  steam  and 
electric  railways,  all  the  means  of  instantane- 
ous communication  which  this  wizard-like  age 
of  ours  is  weaving  from  ocean  to  ocean,  are 
consolidating  the  American  people  into  a  sin- 
gle family. 

Natural  conditions  and  the  ordinary  prog- 
ress of  industry  and  invention  are  making  old 
methods  inadequate  and  unjust.  So  keep 
abreast  of  the  growing  Nation  in  your  politi- 
cal thinking.     Solve  all  American  problems 

363 


THE   YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

from  the  view-point  of  the  Nation,  and  not 
from  the  view-point  of  state  or  section.  Con- 
sider the  American  people  as  a  People,  and  not 
as  a  lot  of  separate  and  hostile  commmiities. 
Be  National.  Be  an  American.  Know  but 
one  flag. 

Whatever  party  you  belong  to,  and  what- 
ever your  views  on  public  questions,  you  will 
never  make  a  profomid  mistake  as  long  as 
you  keep  your  civic  ideals  high  and  pure. 
Believe  in  the  mission  of  the  American  peo- 
ple. Have  faith  in  our  destiny.  Never  ques- 
tion that  this  Republic  is  God's  handiwork, 
and  that  it  will  sm'ely  do  His  will  throughout 
the  earth. 

Understand  that  we  are  not  living  for  to-day 
alone.  Keep  in  mind  the  future — the  tasks, 
opportunities,  and  rewards  of  which  for  the 
American  people  will  make  our  large  per- 
formances of  to-day  seem  like  mere  sugges- 
tions. Strive  to  make  yourself  worthy  of  this 
Nation  of  your  ideals. 

And  of  all  your  ideals,  let  the  Nation  itself 
be  the  noblest.  Fear  not  lest  you  pitch  your 
thought  too  high  for  American  realities  and 
possibilities.  No  single  mind  can  scale  the 
heights  the  American  people  will  finallj^  con- 
quer.   No  single  imagination  can  compass  the 

364 


THE    YOUNG    MAN    AND    THE    NATION 

American  people's  combined  activity,  power, 
and  righteousness  even  at  this  present  moment. 

We  have  defects  and  deficiencies;  fear  not, 
they  will  be  remedied  and  supplied.  We  have 
perplexities  and  problems;  fear  not,  they  will 
be  untangled  and  solved.  We  have  burdens, 
foreign  and  domestic;  fear  not,  we  v^^W  bear 
them  to  the  place  appointed,  and,  at  the  hands 
of  the  Master  who  gave  us  those  burdens  to 
carr}^  receive  the  reward  for  the  well-doing 
of  our  work,  and,  strengthened  by  our  labor, 
go  on  to  hea^^er  and  nobler  tasks  which  He 
will  have  ready  and  waiting  for  us. 

For  this  Nation  of  oui's  is  here  for  a  pur- 
pose. He  did  not  give  us  our  liberty  for  noth- 
ing, or  our  location  or  our  physical  resources, 
or  any  element  of  om'  material,  intellectual, 
or  spiritual  power.  No,  the  Father  of  Lights 
has  thus  highly  endowed  us  that  we  may  do 
the  very  things  which  are  at  our  hands  to-day, 
and  those  other  and  greater  things  which  will 
follow.  It  is  for  us  Americans  to  solve  the 
problems  that  confront  us  now,  and  the  still 
harder  and  deeper  ones  that  we  do  not  yet  be- 
hold; and  we  will  solve  them,  never  doubt. 
Live  up  to  this  ideal  of  your  Nation's  place 
and  purpose  in  the  world,  young  man.  'Be  an 
American. 

365 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE   WORLD   AND   THE   YOUNG   MAN 

There  has  been  much  counsehng  of  the 
j^oung  man  respecting  the  world.  But  what 
of  counsehng  the  world  respecting  the  j^oung 
man?  Do  not  men  and  women  riper  in  years 
and  richer  in  experience  need  to  have  their 
attention  called  to  the  young  man  and  the  po- 
tentialities of  him.  He  faces  the  world  with 
vigor,  courage,  and  faith — this  stout-hearted, 
hopeful  young  fellow  with  To-morrow  and 
all  its  possibilities  coiled  up  in  his  brain  and 
heart. 

The  young  man  is  the  future  incarnate.  His 
soul  is  the  abiding-place  of  uplifting  ideals, 
and  the  world — ^that  vast  collective  individual- 
ity to  which  you  and  I  belong — too  often  dis- 
pels those  sensitive  enthusiasms  by  its  neglect 
or  disapproval.  Do  we  not  find  in  our  daily 
speech  a  certain  cynicism  toward  youth  ?  Does 
not  our  skeptic  wisdom  paste  the  label  "  illu- 
sions "  over  the  word  "  ideals  "  written  on  the 
young  man's  brow?     Is  there  not  a  refusal  to 

366 


THE    WORLD   AND   THE    YOUNG   MAN 

recognize  young  manhood's  force  until  it  com- 
pels recognition  by  sheer  mastery? 

If  so,  it  is  a  fault  that  the  world  should 
remedy.  Not  that  the  young  man  should  not 
prove  himself  before  the  world  accepts  him; 
not  that  he  should  not  win  his  spurs  before 
he  is  knighted.  No  one  insists  that  he  shall 
"  make  good  "  more  than  I  do.  But  in  the 
testing  of  him,  let  us  give  him  the  help  of  our 
kindly  attention.  Let  us  lend  him  the  encour- 
agement of  our  applause  as  he  rides  into  the 
lists. 

Countless  young  men  have  been  need- 
lessly discouraged  by  the  indifference  of  the 
occupied  and  the  sneers  of  the  calloused.  Let 
us  not  be  so  chary  of  our  sympathy.  Faith 
in  most  young  men  is  a  much  safer  hazard 
than  infidelity.  For  all  things  strong  and  pure 
and  helpful  to  the  world  7nai/  ^e  possible  of 
those  young  fellows  who  must,  in  any  event, 
very  soon  possess  the  earth. 

So  let  not  the  frost  of  the  world's  uncon- 
cern fall  upon  young  manhood's  unfolding 
powers.  Let  us  beware  how  we  extinguish  the 
feeblest  of  youth's  idealisms.  Let  us  check 
not  the  onset  of  his  knight-errantry.  And  the 
world  does  these  things — not  purposely,  not 
even  knowingly,  but  thoughtlessly.     JVIany  a 

367 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

young  man  has  had  his  hfe's  work  kept  back 
and  the  ardor  of  it  chilled  by  rebuff  at  the 
beginning". 

Many  another  has  had  his  faith  in  God  and 
humanity  and  the  effectiveness  of  the  eternal 
verities  in  the  world's  work  enfeebled  and  even 
shattered  by  what  he  felt  was  the  world's  dis- 
belief in  them.  No  statistician  can  collect  and 
classify  the  instances  of  young  lives  impaired 
by  the  heedlessness  and  insensibility  of  the 
matm-e  to  the  beatitudes  which  glorify  all 
youth. 

This  attitude  of  the  world  toward  young 
men  is  not  caused  by  any  distrust  of  them  or 
by  any  undervaluing  of  the  high  qualities  of 
the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good  which  the 
young  man  brings  to  it.  Let  no  young  man 
get  the  idea  that  the  world  of  society  and 
affairs  is  "  down  on  him,"  to  borrow  the  phra- 
sing of  the  people  again.  Let  him  never  for 
a  moment  feel  that  this  world  of  experience 
and  present  power  does  not  believe  in  him. 

For  the  world  does  believe  in  you,  young 
man.  It  is  not  "  down  on  "  you.  It  is  busy, 
that  is  all.  It  is  engaged  with  the  numberless 
and  pressing  concerns  of  its  from-day-to-day 
existence.  It  is  forgetful,  no  doubt,  but  its 
apathy  does  not  go  deeper  than  that. 

368 


THE    WORLD   AND   THE    YOUNG   MAN 

With  this  caution  to  the  young  man  tliat  he 
may  not  misunderstand  what  is  here  written, 
I  appeal  to  men  and  women,  in  whose  faces  the 
years  have  etched  the  hnes  and  wrinkles  of 
knowledge  and  understanding,  to  give  more 
attention  to  young  men;  to  encourage  the  no- 
bilities of  them;  to  reach  down  a  helping  hand 
from  your  secure  station  on  the  heights  to  him 
who  struggles  upward  toward  you. 

It  will  not  hurt  you,  sir  or  madam,  to  closely 
watch  for  signs  of  developing  power  in  the 
young  men  of  your  acquaintance  and  to  culti- 
vate that  growing  strength  by  your  active  and 
aggressive  faith  in  the  young  giant  whom  you 
have  thus  discovered. 

Men  and  women  there  are  who  search  mi- 
nutely for  unknown  powers  in  plant-life,  and 
by  infinite  pains  in  the  use  of  that  power,  when 
found,  evolve  newer,  higher,  and  better  types 
of  fruit  and  flower.  And  this  is  a  good  work. 
JVIen  and  women  there  are  who  sweep  the  in- 
finitudes of  the  skies  that  they  may  find  a  star 
hitherto  unseen,  or  steal  unawares  upon  a 
hidden  planet  or  a  flying  comet  swiftly,  yet 
stealthily,  emerging  upon  the  field  of  the  tel- 
escope's vision. 

And  that  is  a  good  work,  too — yet  fruitless, 
for  the  immensities  of  the  universe  will  never 

369 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

be  measured,  nor  the  mysteries  of  the  skies  be 
solved,  nor  the  stars  give  up  their  secrets. 
IMost  of  us  are  on  some  quest  which  requires 
the  very  infinitesimaHties  of  patience,  quests 
that  are  grand  and  quests  that  are  foohsh, 
searchings  that  are  useful  and  explorations 
that  are  frivolous. 

But  the  noblest  of  all  prospecting  is  for 
strength  and  high  purpose  and  thoroughbred 
quality  among  the  young  manhood  of  our  Na- 
tion. For  any  one  who  helj^s  some  young  man 
to  make  his  life  righteously  successful  has  en- 
riched humanity  more  than  he  who  reveals  a 
Klondike  to  the  uses  and  the  greed  of  the  clans 
of  trade. 

Yes;  and  he  or  she  who,  in  the  search 
for  strong  minds  and  pure  hearts  among 
young  men,  discovers  to  the  world  a  great 
man  has  in  that  achievement  wrought  immor- 
tality for  himself  and  herself,  while  rendering 
to  mankind  a  service  like  that  of  a  Columbus 
or  a  Pasteur.  For  Columbus  discovered  a  new 
continent ;  but  what  of  the  man  or  woman  who 
while  looking  through  all  the  immaturities  of 
his  youth  "discovers  "  a  Columbus. 

Thus  would  I  direct  the  divining  keenness 
of  our  men  of  affairs,  so  swift  and  sure  to 
detect  advantages  in  business,  to  the  young 

370 


THE   WORLD   AND    THE    YOUNG   MAN 

men  who  wait  at  their  outer  gates  for  recog- 
nition and  service.  I  would  invite  the  world, 
whose  hearing  is  so  sensitive  to  the  material 
things  of  commerce,  to  the  exalted  and  eternal 
suhject  of  human  characters  and  human  des- 
tinies as  they  are  developing  daily,  hourly,  all 
about  us.  In  a  word,  I  ask  the  ear  of  the  world 
for  its  young  men. 

I  read  in  some  sermon — I  think  it  was  by 
INIyron  Reed — that  the  most  pathetic  thing  in 
life  is  that  a  man  of  either  thought  or  action 
must  spend  two-thirds  of  his  time  getting 
a  hearing.  "  During  this  time,"  said  the 
preacher,  "  the  man  of  thought  speaks  his 
inmiortal  word;  the  man  of  action  does  his 
immortal  deed;  all  the  time  the  World  is  re- 
fusing to  listen  or  to  heed;  but  finally,  when 
the  fires  of  genius  have  burned  low,  when  the 
great  thoughts  have  been  uttered  and  the  great 
works  wrought,  then  it  Is  willing  to  give  ear 
and  eye  to  the  necessarily  feebler  acts  and 
thoughts  of  the  great  man's  later  days." 

It  refuses  to  come  near  the  fire  when  in 
full  glow ;  it  comes  and  puts  its  hands  into  the 
ashes  after  the  flame  has  died  out  and  the 
ashes  themselves  are  growing  cold.  Do  we 
not  find  ourselves  worshiping  echoes  and 
ghosts  in  the  persons  of  men  who  once  wrought 

371 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

splendidly,  and  denying  the  real  forces  of  the 
present  hour  until  they  compel  recognition  by 
their  overwhelmingness ;  and  then,  having  ex- 
hausted themselves,  become  in  their  turn  ghosts 
and  echoes. 

It  is  all  right  to  honor  those  who  have  done 
big  things  and  are  "  living  on  their  reputa- 
tions"; but  it  is  all  wrong  to  deny  to  those 
young  men  who  are  doing  and  will  do  big 
things,  now  and  in  the  future,  full  and  glad 
recognition  of  their  power  and  possibilities. 

The  first  thing  that  the  world  should  re- 
member about  the  young  man  who  is  confront- 
ing it,  asking  his  daily  bread  of  it,  is  the  in- 
estimable value  of  the  qualities  of  freshness, 
of  innocence,  of  faith,  of  confidence,  of  high 
honesty,  of  Don  Quixote  courage  which  the 
young  man  brings  to  it.  These  are  quali- 
ties which  in  human  character  are  worth  all 
the  wisdom  of  the  market-place  many  million 
times  multiplied.  They  are  the  qualities  which, 
in  spite  of  itself,  keep  the  world  young  and 
tolerable. 

The  young  man  comes  to  the  world  fresh 
from  his  mother's  knee.  The  Lord's  Prayer 
is  still  in  his  mind ;  his  mother  taught  it  to  him. 
The  glorious  fable  of  Washington  and  the 
cherry-tree  is  still  in  his  heart;  his  mother 

372 


THE   WORLD   AND   THE    YOUNG  MAN 

taught  it  to  him.  A  beautiful  honor  that  makes 
him  very  foolish  on  the  stock  exchange  and 
causes  the  shrewd  ones  to  say,  "  He  will  know 
more  after  a  while  " — the  splendid  honor  that 
makes  him  throw  over  what  the  world  calls 
"advantages"  —  still  glorifies  his  soul;  his 
mother  taught  him  that  honor.  The  confi- 
dence that  God  is  just,  and  that  success  is 
surely  his  if  he  will  but  do  right,  still  beau- 
tifies him  like  the  rose-tinted  clouds  of  morn- 
ing ;  it  is  the  influence  of  his  mother's  teaching. 

Let  the  world  understand  that  these  quali- 
ties with  which  the  mother  labors  to  endow 
her  child,  from  the  time  the  blessing  of  ma- 
ternity is  hers  to  the  time  the  bright-eyed 
young  fellow  steps  out  from  the  old  home,  are 
more  valuable  to  the  world  itself  than  all  its 
gold-mines,  all  its  scientific  discoveries,  all  its 
electric  railroads,  all  its  games  of  politics,  all 
its  commerce.  "  II  mondo  va  da  se,"  said  a 
cynical  Italian  statesman — "  the  world  goes  by 
itself."    But  it  does  not. 

If  the  world  were  not  each  year  renewed, 
refreshed,  glorified  by  the  magnificent  honor 
and  fine  expectancies  of  its  young  men,  it 
would  soon  become  simply  fiendish  in  its  sordid- 
ness,  selfishness,  and  baseness.  Let  the  world, 
then,  preserve  these  fine  qualities  at  which  it 

373 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

too  often  idly  sneers ;  not  for  the  young  man's 
sake — no,  that  is  not  to  be  expected — but  for 
its  own  sake. 

Let  the  world  turn  to  the  Master  and  think 
of  what  he  said:  "  Except  ye  become  as  little 
children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,"  I  am  pleading  for  the  tolerance 
of  what,  by  a  certain  class  of  men,  are  called 
impracticable  business  defects  in  youthful 
character,  which  in  reality  are  the  vital  blood 
by  which  the  world  is  kept  morally  alive. 

The  first  attitude  that  the  world  ought  real- 
ly to  take  toward  the  young  man  is  charity. 
How  parrot-like  one  is!  Charity!  "And  now 
abideth  faith,  hope,  charity,  these  three;  but 
the  greatest  of  these  is  charity."  I  defy  any 
man  who  talks  about  the  practical  affairs  of 
this  life  to  get  away  from  the  Bible. 

Let  the  world  then  have  charity  for  the 
young  man.  Let  it  realize  that  for  the  par- 
ticular moment  there  is  nothing  conceivable 
so  helpless  as  he.  He  is  just  as  helpless  as,  in 
time,  he  will  become  irresistible.  I  have  al- 
ready earnestly  advised  every  young  man,  as 
a  practical  matter,  to  do  at  least  one  thing  each 
day  not  only  free  from  any  selfish  motive,  but 
from  which  no  possible  material  benefit  could 
come  to  himself. 

374 


THE   WORLD   AND   THE    YOUNG  MAN 

And  now  this  is  the  reverse  side  of  that 
shield.  Let  the  world  give  to  the  young  man 
a  little  start,  a  little  help,  a  little  foothold,  a 
little  encouragement.  And  I  repeat  that  by 
the  world  I  mean  the  great  mass  of  men  who 
have  ceased  to  be  young  men,  or  who,  still 
young  in  years,  have  achieved  places  of  power 
— those  who  hold  the  reins  of  affairs  and  busi- 
ness, of  industrial  and  social  conditions. 

I  heard  of  a  banker  once  who  saw  to  it  that 
at  least  once  each  week  he  hunted  up  some 
young  man,  bravely  struggling,  bravely  fight- 
ing, and  gave  him  some  little  assistance — a 
piece  of  business,  an  opportunity,  needful  and 
kindly  counsel-7-something  that  moistened  his 
parched  lips,  dry  and  hot  from  running  the 
hard  race  that  all  youth  must  run  for  success. 
I  said  to  myself:  "  There  is  something  in  re- 
incarnation; the  soul  of  Abou-ben-Adhem  is 
dwelling  in  that  banker's  heart." 

For  years  the  greatest  pleasure  of  my  life 
has  been  that  young  boys  have  come  to  me 
from  all  over  my  State  to  talk  about  how 
they  should  proceed  in  life's  battle.  You,  too, 
may  have  the  pleasure  of  helping  young  men. 
But  beware  how  you  do  this,  saying  in  your 
heart,  "  I  will  help  this  young  man,  and  when 
he  succeeds  I  will  reap  my  reward."     Such  a 

375 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

selfish  thought  will  utterly  poison  your  ad- 
vice, deflect  your  moral  vision,  distort  your 
intellectual  perceptions. 

That  man  who  advises  a  young  man  with 
the  thought  that  some  day  he  will  be  able  to 
harvest  personal  advantage  from  that  young 
man's  success,  has  probably  by  that  very 
thought  been  rendered  incapable  of  giving 
sound  advice  or  profitable  help.  Help  the 
young  man  for  his  sake,  for  the  sake  of  the 
great  humanity  of  which  he  is  a  fresh  and 
beautiful  part,  for  the  sake  of  that  abstract 
good  which,  after  all,  is  the  only  reward  in 
this  life  worthy  the  consideration  of  a  seri- 
ous man. 

I  heard  not  long  ago  of  a  brilliant  and 
crafty  young  politician  who  was  and  is  an 
earnest  champion  and  helper  of  a  very  suc- 
cessful and  highly  practical  man  in  public 
life.  He  had  acquired  some  unfortunate 
traits.  He  was  suspicious,  distrustful.  He 
feared  betrayal  here,  a  Judas  there.  The  cau- 
tion increased  his  cunning  but  was  impairing 
his  character.  The  man  to  whose  fortunes  he 
was  attached  called  him  in,  in  the  midst  of  a 
great  political  battle  on  which  the  fortunes  of 
that  man  depended,  and  said  to  his  young  lieu- 
tenant : 

376 


THE    WORLD   AND   THE    YOUNG   MAN 

"  Success  in  this  fight  is  important  to  me, 
but  it  is  not  so  important  as  the  impairing  of 
your  character  which  I  see  going  on.  You  are 
becoming  permanently  distrustful,  suspicious. 
You  think  one  friend  will  fail  us  here,  that 
that  friend  is  untrue,  that  the  other  one  may 
be  influenced  improperly.  Very  soon  you  will 
begin  to  suspect  me,  then  you  will  suspect 
yourself,  and  then — then,  you  are  utterly  lost. 
Stop  it.  I  would  rather  lose  the  fight  than 
see  your  character  become  negative." 

That  man  was  right,  and  the  attitude  he 
took  in  his  advice  to  the  young  man  was  right. 
Let  the  world  quit  encouraging  young  men 
to  think  that  guile  succeeds.  Let  it  encourage 
the  faith  that  nothing  but  the  noble  and  the 
good  really  succeed  in  the  end.  Let  every  one 
point  out  to  the  young  man  confronting  the 
world  that  it  is  not  so  great  a  thing  after  all 
to  be  "  smart,"  not  so  great  a  thing  after  all 
to  be  capable  with  the  little  tricks  of  life,  but 
that  it  is  everything  to  be  good  and  trustful 
and  fearless  and  constructive. 

It  will  not  do  for  the  world  to  reply  that 
it  does,  in  words,  encourage  these  fine  quali- 
ties of  youth.  It  does  not,  except  in  formal 
and  meaningless  utterances — preachments  that 

have  not  the  vitaUty  of  individuality  in  them. 
25  377 


THE    YOUNG   MAN   AND    THE    WORLD 

Words  are  very  little,  almost  less  than  nothing ; 
but  attitude  and  action  are  everything.  The 
young  man  would  not  feel  that  he  had  to 
be  "  slick,"  or  crafty,  or  cunning,  if  the  world's 
attitude  did  not  invite  him  to  such  a  conclu- 
sion. It  is  the  nature  of  young  men  the  world 
over,  and  particularly  of  young  Americans,  to 
be  open  in  life,  direct  in  method,  lofty  in  pur- 
pose, and  fearless  in  action. 

A  very  successful  lawyer  once  told  me  the 
follovv'ing — it  illustrates  my  point:  "I  re- 
member," said  he,  "  that  when  I  was  a  law 
student  one  of  the  most  brilliant  j^oung  men 
I  ever  met — one  of  the  most  brilliant  young 
or  old  men  I  ever  met — one  day  received  a 
client  of  the  firm  with  a  luxury  of  attention 
and  a  sumptuousness  of  courtesy  that  deeply 
aroused  my  ignorant  and  rural  admiration. 

"  When  the  consultation  had  been  finished 
and  the  rich  client  had  left  the  office,  this  young 
lawyer,  who  had  bowed  him  out  with  a  deft 
compliment  which  made  the  client  feel  that  he 
was  the  point  about  which  the  universe  was 
revolving,  turned  and  said,  as  he  went  to  his 
desk,  '  There  goes  the  shallowest  fool  and 
most  stupid  rascal  in  the  state.' 

"  When  asked  how  he  could  say  such  a 
thing  after  having  treated  the  client  with  such 

378 


THE   WORLD   AND   THE    YOUNG   MAN 

distinction,  he  turned  with  a  wink  of  his  eye, 
and  said :  '  That  is  the  way  to  work  them. 
You  don't  know  the  world  yet.  Wait  till  you 
get  on  in  the  world;  it  will  teach  you  how 
to  handle  them.' 

"  That  young  man  had  become  thoroughly 
saturated  with  the  opinion  that  Ferrers,  in 
"  Ernest  Maltravers,"  is  the  type  to  be  imi- 
tated— a  character  of  crafty  cunning,  playing 
on  the  weaknesses  of  men.  He  had  gotten  his 
opinion  from  the  apparent  success  of  the  tricks 
and  sharp  practises  of  the  law.  He  had  not 
seen  the  broader  horizon  above  which  only 
those  who  are  as  good  as  they  are  capable  ever 
rise. 

"  It  was  a  fatal  method  for  him.  He  finally 
failed.  It  was  a  fatal  method  for  at  least 
two  young  students  upon  whom  his  ideals 
and  influences  fell  with  determining  power." 

Of  course;  and  it  is  a  fatal  view  of  life  for 
any  young  man  to  get.  The  young  man  who 
comes  out  from  the  ennobling  influence  of  the 
American  mother  will  not  take  this  view  if  the 
world  does  not  compel  him  to  do  so.  The 
world,  then,  should  not  applaud  any  feat  of 
smartness  or  cunning  on  the  part  of  the  young 
man.  It  sh(3uld  not  wink  its  eye  and  pat  him 
on  the  shoulder   and   say,  "  That   was  very 

379 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND    THE    WORLD 

'smooth,'  very  'smooth'  indeed;  I  congratu- 
late you." 

The  young  man  confronts  the  world  with 
mingled  courage  and  timidity.  It  is  so  vast. 
It  seems  so  unconquerable.  And  yet  he  has 
been  taught  to  believe  that  if  he  meets  it  with 
a  high  fearlessness  he  will  conquer.  That  is 
what  his  mother  taught  him.  Out  of  this 
thought  and  his  nervous  timidity  combined 
comes  what  appears  to  the  world  to  be  a  sense- 
less courage,  a  foolish  daring.  He  is  very 
much  afraid ;  he  wants  to  make  the  world  think 
he  is  not  afraid;  he  has  been  told  to  put  up  a 
bold  front — and  men  think  him  rash  and  ad- 
venturous. He  is  not — he  is  only  trying  to 
keep  you  from  seeing  how  scared  he  is. 

In  the  campaign  of  1898  a  young  man  with 
all  of  these  qualities,  and  gifted  with  consid- 
erable oratorical  power,  was  seeking  an  op- 
portunity to  get  a  little  hearing.  He  had  just 
graduated  from  college,  had  opened  a  law 
office,  had  never  had  the  shadow  or  substance 
of  a  client,  but  he  had  that  fresh  confidence 
and  the  ability  back  of  it  which  the  world 
neglects  until,  finally,  it  is  forced  to  accept  it. 

I  secured  for  him  an  invitation  to  make 
some  speeches  in  a  neighboring  State.  He  was 
delighted.     He  went,  but  returned  wounded 

380 


THE   WORLD   AND   THE   YOUNG  MAN 

in  spirit  by  the  heedlessness  of  the  State  Com- 
mittee and  the  indifference  of  the  men  of 
prominence  who  had  refused  to  notice  him. 
And  yet  the  fine  courage  that  dared  take  part 
in  the  great  struggle  just  beginning  was  a 
quality  which  was  more  valuable  to  his  party 
and  to  the  world  and  to  humanity,  than  all 
of  the  schemes  of  the  men  who  rejected  him. 

It  is  this  courage  constantly  injected  into 
the  veins  of  the  world  which,  little  by  little,  is 
lifting  mankind  up  to  a  more  and  still  more 
endurable  estate.  I  shall  never  be  able  to 
perform  a  higher  service  than  to  light  again, 
as  I  did,  the  fires  of  his  confidence  and  young 
daring. 

Let  the  world  not  suppose  that  by  encoura- 
ging these  great  qualities  of  youth  which  it  now 
heedlessly  represses,  and  only  too  often  kills, 
it  will  spoil  the  young  man.  The  intrinsic 
difficulties  of  life  are  great  enough  to  keep 
him  within  bounds,  no  matter  how  much  en- 
couragement he  receives.  The  very  nature  of 
things,  and  the  constitution  of  society  as  he 
comes  to  examine  it  in  its  concrete  manifesta- 
tions, will  chasten  his  illusions. 

The  rarity  of  the  air  as  he  mounts  upward 
in  life  will  weight  his  wings  at  last.  The 
limitations  of  Nature  and  of  affairs  will  in 

381 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

themselves  be  all  the  chastisement  he  needs 
to  correct  abnormal  hope,  courage,  faith,  or 
honor — yes,  even  more  than  enough.  Let  the 
world,  then — the  men  and  women  who  have 
won  their  places  in  "life — let  them  nourish  the 
enthusiasms  and  the  elemental  "  illusions  "  of 
youth  wherever  they  see  them. 

After  all,  they  are  not  illusions;  they  are 
the  only  true  things  in  this  universe.  The 
houses  that  men  construct  will  in  time  decay. 
The  remorseless  elements  will  rot  the  noblest 
trees  down  to  the  earth  from  which  they  grew. 
The  laws  that  men  make  will  lose  their  force 
and  be  succeeded  by  other  statutes,  equally 
temporary  and  futile.  Reputations  men  build 
will  vanish  almost  before  they  are  made.  Civ- 
ilizations they  erect  will  pass  from  their  flower- 
ing into  the  seeds  of  future  civilizations  and  be 
forgotten,  too. 

But  the  "  illusions  "  with  which  the  young 
man  confronts  the  world  at  the  beginning  of 
his  career  are  as  everlasting  as  God's  word: 
"  Till  heaven  and  earth  pass,  one  jot  or  one 
tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  from  the  law,  till 
all  be  fulfilled."  The  "illusions"  of  the 
young  man — of  the  young  American  particu- 
larly— are  the  manifestations  of  that  law,  the 
eternal  law  of  the  eternal  verities. 

382 


THE    WORLD    AND    THE    YOUNG   MAN 

The  lyrical  dream  of  the  boy  is  the  kingly  truth. 
The  world  is  a  vapor  and  only  the  Vision  is  real — 
Yea,  nothing  can  hold  against  hell  but  the  Winged 
Ideal." 


Let  the  world  look  to  it,  then,  that  the  ex- 
alted qualities  of  youth  which  make  it  indis- 
creet, audacious,  exhilarant — yes,  and  spotless, 
too — be  not  discouraged,  repressed,  destroyed; 
for  these  qualities  are  "the  salt  of  the  earth; 
but  if  the  salt  have  lost  its  savor,  wherewith 
shall  it  be  salted?  it  is  thenceforth  good  for 
nothing  but  to  be  cast  out,  and  to  be  trodden 
under  foot  of  men." 

Speaking  to  the  world  of  business  and  of 
society,  I  therefore  plead  for  tolerance  of  all 
the  fresh,  clean,  high,  and  splendid — absurd, 
if  you  will — "  illusions  "  of  the  young  man 
seeking  his  seat  at  the  table  where  all  men  eat, 
and  where  all,  at  the  end,  must  drink  the  same 
hemlock  cup. 

For  if  these  "  illusions  "  are  destroyed  and 
replaced  with  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent,  Ten- 
nyson's "  Locksley  Hall "  will,  sure  enough 
and  in  sad  reality,  be  replaced  by  the  "  Locks- 
ley  Hall  Sixty  Years  After."  Take  the  young 
man,  then,  by  the  hand,  take  him  to  your  heart, 
and,  instead  of  destroying,  catch,  if  you  can, 

383 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

some  of  the  glory,  the  faith,  the  freshness, 
the  "  ilkisions "  of  his  youth;  remembering 
that  Wordsworth  uttered  an  ultimate  note 
when  he  said: 

"  Our  birth  is  but  a  sleep  and  a  forgetting ; 

Tlie  soul  that  rises  with  us,  our  life's  star. 
Hath  had  elsewhere  its  setting. 

And  Cometh  from  afar. 
Not  in  entire  forgetfulness, 
And  not  in  utter  nakedness. 
But  trailing  clouds  of  glory,  do  we  come 
From  God,  who  is  our  home/' 

And  it  is  these  clouds  of  glory  that  still  sur- 
round the  young  man  when  he  stands  brave 
and  sweet  and  full  of  faith,  and  with  his 
mother's  precious  precepts  and  counsels  ring- 
ing in  his  ears,  before  the  great  old  world, 
wrinkled  by  its  infinite  centuries. 

But  you,  young  man,  you  for  whom  I  am 
asking  the  world's  helpful  regard — when  you 
read  this  do  not  go  to  pitying  yourself.  That 
is  fatal.  Do  not  get  the  notion  that  the  world 
is  not  giving  you  your  just  due.  If  you  have 
such  an  idea,  thrust  it  instantly  from  you. 
If  you  think  the  world  has  downed  you,  up 
and  at  it  again.  If,  a  second  time,  it  knocks 
you  out,  still  up  and  at  it  again.    And  keep 

384, 


THE    WORLD   AND   THE    YOUNG   MAN 

smiling.  Never  whine — you  deserve  defeat  if 
you  do  that. 

Be  a  "  thoroughbred,"  as  the  expression  of 
the  hour  has  it.  After  "  you  conquer  and  pre- 
vail," you  will  find  that  the  world  has  a  kindly 
and  even  a  loving  heart.  All  you  have  to  do 
is  to  keep  in  condition  and  keep  fighting.  And 
that  ought  to  be  pleasant  to  any  male  creature 
— what  more  can  he  want?  Just  go  .right 
ahead  with  faith  in  God,  believing  in  all  the 
virtues  and  keeping  up  your  nerve.  But  if 
you  get  to  pitying  yourself,  you  are  lost,  and 
ought  to  be. 

Furthermore,  do  not  succumb  to  the  fiction 
that  there  are  fewer  "  chances "  for  young 
men  now  than  there  used  to  be.  Never  was 
there  a  period  when  there  were  so  many  oppor- 
tunities as  there  are  this  very  day — high-grade 
opportunities.  They  are  for  high-grade  men 
— and  that  is  what  you  are,  is  it  not?  If  not, 
why  not?  The  calls  for  men  of  fine  equip- 
ment daily  rise  from  every  business,  and  are 
never  satisfied. 

And  these  calls  are  for  young  men,  too.  In- 
deed, it  is  not  the  young  man,  but  the  old  and 
middle-aged  man  who  has  the  right  to  com- 
plain. The  exactions  of  modern  business  are 
discriminating   in    favor   of   the   man   under 

385 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

forty.  There  are  calls  for  all  kinds  of  men. 
But  the  fiercest  demand  is  for  first-class  men. 
You  have  only  to  be  a  first-class  man  in  order 
to  be  sought  for  by  scores  of  firms  and  cor- 
porations— and  on  your  own  terms.  No!  it  is 
not  the  fact  that  there  are  no  chances  for  young 
men  to-day.     The  chances  are  all  around  you. 


386 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE   YOUNG   MAN's   SECOND    WIND;   OR   FACING 
THE  WORLD   AT   FIFTY 

Life  has  tliree  tragedies :  loss  of  honor,  loss 
of  health,  and  the  black  conclusion  of  men 
past  middle  life  who  think  they  have  failed — 
played  the  game  and  lost.  The  young  man 
starting  out  in  life  has  my  heart;  but  the  man 
past  fifty  who  feels  that  he  has  failed  has  my 
heart  absolutely  and  with  emphasis.  Appar- 
ently he  has  so  much  to  contend  against — the 
onsweep  of  the  world,  the  pitying  attitude  of 
those  of  his  own  age  who  have  succeeded,  and, 
over  all,  his  secret  feeling  of  despair.  But  the 
last  is  the  only  fatal  element  in  his  problem. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  man  past  middle 
life  who  has  not  achieved  distinct  success  very 
possibly  has  only  been  "  finding  himself,"  to 
use  ]Mr.  Kipling's  expression.  Perhaps  he  has 
only  been  growing.  Certainly  he  has  been 
accumulating  experience,  knowledge,  and  the 
effective  wisdom  which  only  these  can  give. 

387 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE   WORLD 

And  if  his  failure  has  not  been  because  he  is 
a  fraud,  and  because  people  found  it  out — if 
he  has  been,  and  is,  genuine — it  may  be  that  he 
has  been  unconsciously  preparing  for  continu- 
ous, enduring,  and  possibly  great  success,  if  he 
only  will. 

I  should  say  that  the  very  first  thing  for  this 
man  to  do  is  to  see  that  he  does  not  get  soured. 
That  attitude  of  character  is  an  acid  which  will 
destroy  all  success.  Keep  yourself  sweet,  no 
matter  how  snail-like  your  progress  has  been, 
no  matter  how  paltry  your  apparent  achieve- 
ments. If  you  are  already  soured  on  men  and 
the  world,  change  that  condition  by  a  persist- 
ent habit  of  optimism.  All  death  shows  an 
acid  reaction.  Hopefulness  is  the  alkaline  in 
character. 

Make  "  looking  on  the  bright  side  "  a  habit. 
It  can  be  done.  Mingle  with  people  as  much 
as  possible — especially  with  the  young  and 
buoyant  and  beautifully  hopeful.  Be  a  part 
of  passing  events.  Read  the  daily  newspapers. 
Form  the  habit  of  picking  out  the  brighter 
aspects  of  occurrences.  There  is  an  astonish- 
ing tonic  in  the  daily  newspaper.  When  you 
read  it,  the  blood  of  the  world's  great  vitality 
is  pouring  through  you. 

I  know  a  man  who  is  now  a  millionaire,  but 
388 


THE    YOUNG   MAN'S   SECOND    WIND 

who  at  the  age  of  forty  was  without  a  dollar. 
He  is  now  not  over  fifty-five.  He  had  spent 
all  those  forty  years  watching  for  his  oppor- 
tunity— aye,  getting  ready  for  it.  When  it 
came,  his  beak  was  sharpened,  his  talons  keen 
as  needles  and  strong  as  steel,  and  he  swooped 
down  upon  that  opportunitj'-  like  a  bird  of 
prey. 

"  No,"  said  he,  "  I  did  not  get  discouraged. 
I  was  living,  and  my  wife  and  children  were 
living;  and  Vanderbilt  was  not  doing  any 
more  than  that,  after  all.  I  felt  all  the  time 
that  I  was  getting  ready.  I  worked  a  good 
deal  harder  than  I  have  since  I  achieved  my 
fortune.  Somehow,  up  to  the  time  it  came  I 
had  not  felt  equal  to  my  chance;  for  I  knew 
that  my  opportunity  would  be  a  large  one  when 
it  came,  and  I  knew  that  it  would  come.  It  did 
come." 

Business  men  said  for  the  first  two  or  three 

years,  "  What  a  change  of  luck  Mr.  has 

had!  But  he  is  not  equal  to  it.  He  has  never 
accomplished  anything  heretofore." 

Yes,  but  he  had  been  getting  ready.  He 
had  been  saving  vitality,  building  up  char- 
acter, indexing  and  pigeonholing  experiences, 
accumulating  and  systematizing  a  long-con- 
tinued series  of  observations  and  all  the  poten- 

389 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

tialities  of  intellect  and  personality  out  of 
which,  when  applied  to  proper  conditions,  suc- 
cess alone  is  forged. 

And  so  he  gathered  to  himself  great  riches, 
and  the  poor  man  of  a  few  years  ago  is  now — 
of  course,  of  course,  and  alas!  if  you  like — a 
member  of  one  of  the  most  powerful  trusts  in 
the  country. 

Get  yourself  into  the  current  of  Circum- 
stance— "  in  the  swim,"  as  the  colloquialism 
has  it.  A  man  of  large  experience  and  impor- 
tant achievement  said  to  me  not  long  ago:  "  I 
am  afraid  I  am  getting  to  be  a  back  number." 
That  was  a  distinct  note  of  degeneration.  If 
he  thought  so  that  thought  was  the  best  evi- 
dence of  the  fact. 

Do  not  get  it  into  your  head  that  you  are 
out  of  step  with  the  times.  That  in  itself  will 
paralyze  both  intellect  and  will.  It  is  an 
admission  of  permanent  failure.  No  matter 
whether  you  think  the  changed  conditions  and 
methods  of  business,  society,  and  affairs,  which 
almost  each  day  brings,  are  inferior  or  superior 
to  the  old  conditions  and  methods  or  not,  you 
must  keep  abreast  of  them;  take  in  the  spirit 
of  them. 

An  attitude  of  protest  against  the  pro- 
gressive order  of  things  may  be  heroic,  but 

390 


THE    YOUNG   MAN'S  SECOND    WIND 

it  is  not  practical  or  effective.  These  condi- 
tions and  methods  which  make  you  feel  like 
a  "  back  number  "  may  not  be  the  best;  if  they 
are  not,  try  to  make  them  the  best,  if  you  will, 
but  do  not  attempt  to  perfect  them  backward 
by  returning  to  yesterday.  The  world  is  very 
impatient  of  apparent  retrogression;  it  hurts 
its  egotism. 

"  What!  Go  back  to  old  conditions?  "  says 
the  World.  "  Never!  never!  Progress,  alone, 
for  me!  " 

But  sometimes  it  means  motion,  not  prog- 
ress; for  true  progress  might  possibly  be  a 
return  to  old  and  superior  methods.  No  mat- 
ter, I  am  speaking  of  you?'  practical,  personal, 
and  material  success  now.  I  am  not  speaking 
to  you  as  a  reformer  or  as  a  teacher  of  the  ele- 
mental truths.  You  are  a  searcher,  past  fifty 
years  of  age,  after  the  flesh-pots.  Very  well, 
then.  Do  not  run  amuck  of  the  world.  Join 
in  its  progress,  even  if  that  progress  seems  to 
you  to  be  unreal. 

At  the  risk  of  iteration,  I  again  urge  con- 
stant mingling  with  people.  It  is  from  them 
that  you  must  draw  your  success,  after  all.  A 
man  over  fifty  who  feels  that  his  life  is  a  fail- 
ure is  apt  to  emphasize  the  outward  manners 
and  inward  habits  of  thought  of  his  earlier 

391 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

days,  as  he  would,  if  he  could,  stick  to  the  old 
styles  and  fashions  of  apparel  of  the  days 
of  his  youth.  To  do  the  latter  would  be  to 
call  attention  at  once  to  his  antiquity;  but  to 
retain  his  old  mental  attitude  is  antiquity  in- 
deed. 

People  are  quick  to  see,  feel,  and  know 
that  you  are  in  deed  and  in  truth  not  of  the 
present  day.  When  they  think  that,  you  are 
discredited  and  at  an  unnecessary  disadvan- 
tage. Therefore  mingle  with  men.  Don't 
withdraw  into  yourself.  Don't  be  a  turtle. 
Be  an  active  and  present  part  of  society,  not 
only  that  youi*  whole  mind  and  whole  conscious 
being  may  be  kept  fresh  and  growing,  but  that 
people  may  not  perceive  the  contrary. 

Growing!  Growth!  It  is  only  a  question 
of  that,  after  all.  No  man  can  ultimately  fail 
who  has  kept  himself  alive,  and  therefore  kept 
himself  growing.  If  you  find  that  you  have 
ceased  to  grow,  start  up  the  process  again. 
Make  yourself  take  an  interest  in  large  and 
constructive  things  of  the  present  moment  in 
your  city,  county,  state,  and  country,  and  in 
the  world. 

The  mind  and  character  of  man  are  the  two 
great  exceptions  to  the  entire  constitution  of 
the  universe.     Decay  is  the  law  that  controls 

392 


THE    YOUNG  MAN'S   SECOND    WIND 

everything  else  except  these;  but  thought  and 
character  need  never  decay.  They  may  be 
kept  growing  as  long  as  life  endures.  Who 
shall  deny  that  the  philosophers  of  India  are 
right,  and  that  mind  and  character  may  con- 
tinue to  grow  throughout  illimitable  series  of 
existences  ? 

Only  two  classes  of  men  are  hopeless:  those 
who  think  to  prevail  by  fraud  and  the  con- 
trivances of  indirection,  and  those  whose  minds 
and  characters  have  begun  to  disintegrate,  or 
degenerate,  if  you  like  the  latter  word  better. 
There  is  every  reason  why  character  should 
each  day  get  a  truer  bearing,  why  the  mind 
each  day  should  become  more  luminous,  ele- 
vated, and  accurate. 

The  Stoics  said  that  even  temperament 
might  be  given  steadiness  and  poise  by  an 
exercise  of  philosophy  and  will,  and  the  lives 
of  many  of  them  seemed  to  prove  it.  And 
if  all  this  is  true,  your  fifty  years  have  given 
you  an  arsenal  of  power  that  is  a  considerable 
advantage  over  younger  men,  if  you  will  but 
use  it ;  and  it  is  to  point  out  some  of  the  methods 
for  its  use,  and  some  of  the  mistakes  which  I 
have  observed  men  in  your  condition  make, 
that  this  paper  is  written. 

A  great  and  natural  desire  of  men  such  as 
26  393 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

those  to  whom  this  paper  is  addressed  is  to 
move  from  the  places  in  which  they  have 
achieved  no  success  to  new  locations,  where,  as 
they  put  it,  they  "  can  start  life  afresh."  Do 
not  do  it.  Such  a  course  is,  ordinarily,  as  fatal 
as  it  is  alluring. 

If  you  have  been  an  upright  man — and 
without  this  there  can  be  no  permanent  suc- 
cess of  any  kind — your  long  residence  in  your 
community  has  put  you  to  no  disadvantage, 
but  precisely  the  contrary.  You  have,  during 
these  years,  secured  the  confidence  of  your 
community.  They  know  you  to  be  loyal, 
truthful,  sober,  steadfast,  industrious.  This 
popular  faith  in  the  elemental  qualities  of 
your  character  is  the  foundation  of  success, 
and  usually  it  requires  years  to  establish  that. 

You  are  at  no  disadvantage  because  the  peo- 
ple do  not  have  for  you  that  admiration  which 
the  doing  of  things  compels.  The  fact  that 
your  neighbors  do  not  suspect  your  potentiali- 
ties is  really  an  advantage.  If  you  have  that 
righteous  and  permissible  craft  which  every 
man  should  have,  and  if  you  take  advantage 
of  it,  you  can  begin  the  work  which  will  bring 
you  success  without  that  envy  and  competition, 
that  friction  of  jealousy,  which  every  man  of 
acknowledged  power  arouses.     But  if  you,  a 

394 


THE    YOUNG   MAN'S   SECOND    WIND 

man  of  fifty  or  over,  go  into  a  new  environ- 
ment, you  carry  with  you  that  heaviest  of  all 
burdens,  the  necessity  of  making  explanations. 

"  Why  have  you  come  among  us  at  your 
age?  "  the  people  ask.  "  What  is  the  story  of 
your  past?  "  they  very  properly  inquire.  "  It 
must  be  that  you  are  not  a  man  of  integrity 
which  commanded  the  respect  and  support  of 
your  old  home,"  they  will  not  unnaturally  con- 
clude; "  either  this,  or  else  you  were  a  failure 
there." 

These  are  the  two  necessary  and  inevitable 
deductions,  and  either  horn  of  that  cruel  di- 
lemma of  logic  is  enough  to  impale  you.  If 
you  escape  them,  you  do  it  because  you  do 
not  attract  notice,  and  this,  in  itself,  is  failure. 
And  in  any  event,  to  gain  the  substantial  con- 
fidence of  the  people  you  must  spend  several 
years  of  right  living  among  them.  And  you 
have  no  time  to  waste  in  building  up  confi- 
dence at  your  period  of  life.  That  is  an  asset 
which  your  whole  career  of  unsuccessful  prob- 
ity should  have  accumulated  for  you ;  and  it  is 
dissipated  if  you  remove  from  among  those 
in  whose  minds  that  belief  in  you  exists. 

I  have  seen  this  serious  error  made  so  many 
times,  and  nearly  always  with  such  destroying 
results,  that  I  give  it  more  space  than  its  rela- 

395 


.  THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

tive  proportion  deserves.  I  have  in  mind  now 
two  men  who  did  precisely  this  thing.  Their 
success  in  the  two  country  towns  where  they 
had  Hved  had  been  reasonable,  but  not  con- 
siderable. It  did  not  appear  to  be  success  at 
all  to  them,  though. 

They  were  quite  sure  that  they  were  bigger 
than  their  opportunities — yes,  that  was  what 
was  the  matter — they  needed  larger  oppor- 
tunities, "  larger  fields,"  more  "  scope  "  for 
their  powers.  Each  man  was  about  fifty  years 
of  age.  Each  was  a  man  of  far  more  than  or- 
dinary talent.  Each  removed  to  a  city.  And 
in  the  city  which  each  chose,  each  miserably, 
utterly,  hopelessly  failed. 

Had  they  remained  where  for  years  they 
had  been  planting  the  seeds  of  confidence,  re- 
spect, and  achievement,  and  had  they  awaited 
the  slow  processes  of  the  harvest,  each  man 
would  soon  have  become  the  leading  man  in 
his  town,  county,  and  district,  and  would  have 
remained  so  until  the  end  of  his  days ;  for  the 
harvest  was  nearly  theirs.  They  did  not  un- 
derstand that  while  it  takes  a  long  time  to  pre- 
pare the  soil  and  sow  the  seed,  and  let  it  grow 
to  maturity,  the  ripening  of  the  harvest  comes 
in  a  few  golden  days. 

It  is  true  that  there  are  exceptions  to  the 
396 


THE    YOUNG   MAN'S   SECOND    WIND 

above  rule — the  rule  of  abiding,  of  standing 
fast.  But  the  exception  is  justified  only  when 
you  have  made  so  many  definite,  tangible,  and 
public  failures  in  your  old  home  that  there  is 
absolutely  no  possibility  of  further  hope.  Of 
course,  if  you  are  a  man  of  lion  heart  and  lion 
power,  this  is  another  matter.  Any  place  on 
earth  is  a  fit  field  for  achievement  by  these 
savages  of  enterprise. 

I  know  one  of  these  who  won  a  fortune,  and 
lost  it;  won  another,  and  again  lost;  and  who, 
finally,  with  judgments  and  executions  shower- 
ing upon  him,  set  his  face  to  a  new  land  and 
resolved  again  to  conquer  fortune  or  die.  He 
conquered — of  course  he  conquered — and  is 
now  worth  many  millions.  But  if  you  look 
into  his  kindly  but  deadly  blue  eye,  and  con- 
sider the  tragic  and  premature  whiteness  of  his 
hair,  and  take  in  the  whole  resistless  and  com- 
pelling personality  of  the  man,  you  will  see 
why  he  succeeded. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  stirring  history 
of  a  certain  great  American  master  of  mil- 
hons  who  is  now  about  sixty-five  years  of  age, 
and  has  amassed  his  wealth  since  he  was  fifty. 
He  had  failed,  and  failed  often,  before  that 
time — failed  once  humiliatingly  and  irretriev- 
ably,  so  the  ordinary  man  would  say.      So 

397 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

the  ordinary  man  did  say,  and  say  hard  and 
often. 

The  details  of  his  early  catastrophes  are  not 
worth  while  here.  The  point  is  that  they  did 
not  affect  him  except  to  make  him  stronger. 
They  were  the  Thor-like  blows  with  which 
Fate  forged  the  unconqiierableness  of  this 
man.    For  unconquerable  he  has  become. 

He  has  carried  through  daring  plans;  he 
has  brought  great  financial  institutions  that 
opposed  him  to  their  knees;  from  the  throne 
of  his  audacity  he  has  dictated  terms  to  boards 
of  trade,  and  made  the  princes  of  the  houses 
of  commercial  royalty  his  servants. 

But  if  you  look  at  his  brow  of  power,  at  the 
merciless  and  yet  delicate  and  sensitive  lips, 
you  will  become  conscious  of  why  he  succeeded 
— why  he  must  eventually  have  succeeded  any- 
where. But  such  a  man  is  no  example  for  you 
unless  you  are  such  a  man  yourself — and  in 
that  case,  you  need  no  examples  of  any  kind. 
You  are  your  own  example. 

I  read  with  keen  interest,  the  other  day,  a 
feature  article  in  one  of  our  great  daily  news- 
papers, giving  incidents  in  the  careers  of  fif- 
teen American  millionaires  who  made  their 
fortimes  after  they  were  fifty.  But  all  these 
had  the  luck  of  the  never-say-die  men.     They 

398 


THE    YOUNG   MAN'S   SECOND    WIND 

were  all  of  the  class  that  Emerson  describes  as 
having  an  excess  of  arterial  circulation. 

Every  failure  to  them  was  simply  an  access 
of  information.  They  regarded  each  loss  as 
another  piece  of  instruction  in  the  game.  For- 
tune always  gives  the  winnings  to  such  as  these 
at  last.  Fortune  loves  a  daring  player;  and 
while  she  may  rebuff  him  for  a  while,  it  is  only 
to  gild  the  refined  gold  of  his  ultimate  achiev- 
ings. 

Another  thing.  Go  you  to  church.  Use  clean 
linen.  Wear  good  and  well-fitting  clothing. 
Take  care  of  your  shoes.  Look  after  all  the 
details  of  your  personal  grooming.  In  short, 
observe  all  the  methods  which  human  experi- 
ence has  devised  to  keep  men  from  degener- 
ating. There  is  an  unalterable  connection 
between  the  physical  and  mental  and  moral. 

The  old  saying  that  "  cleanliness  is  next  to 
godliness  "  has  beneath  it  all  the  philosophy 
of  civilization. 

It  is  an  easy  process  that  produces  tramps. 
A  few  days'  growth  of  beard,  the  tolerance 
of  certain  personal  habits  of  indolence,  and 
your  tramp  begins,  vaguely,  but  none  the  less 
surely,  to  appear.  This  is  accompanied  by  a 
falling  off  in  clear-cut  thought,  a  blurring  of 
the  moralities,  and  a  cessation  of  definite  and 

399 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

effective  energy.  This  is  itself,  of  course,  an 
interminable  subject  upon  which  several  pa- 
pers might  be  written ;  but  perhaps  I  have  said 
enough  to  make  apparent  to  you  its  practical 
application. 

The  stages  of  degeneration  are  as  easy  as 
they  are  fatal,  and  since  to  resist  them  requires 
courage,  force,  and  alertness,  it  is  only  too 
probable  that  the  man  past  fifty,  who  feels 
that  he  has  failed,  is  beginning  to  submit  to 
them.  Do  not  do  it.  Resort  to  every  possible 
device  to  prevent  it;  for  degeneration,  in  it- 
self, is  failure;  more,  it  is  death.  It  is  exactly 
the  same  force  which  rots  out  the  heart  of  the 
oak,  manifesting  itself  in  human  character. 

Your  problem  is  not  to  give  way  to  your 
weaknesses.  That  is  the  problem  of  all  of  us. 
"  I  see  two  men  looking  from  j^^our  eyes,"  said 
the  Norse  seeress,  "  a  young  man  and  an  old 
man.  Do  not  let  the  old  man  in  you  conquer 
the  young  man  in  you."  Very  well!  Barring 
the  loss  of  health,  you  can  always  make  the 
young  man  in  you  the  victor. 

Do  not  conclude  that  things  are  fixed,  that 
conditions  are  permanent,  and  that,  as  there 
is  no  apparent  place  for  you  as  circumstances 
now  exist,  there  never  will  be.  Fix  in  your 
mind  this  dreadful  and  glorious  paradox,  that 

400 


THE    YOUNG   MAN'S   SECOND    WIND 

even  the  most  permanent  things  are  transient. 
Study  the  clouds,  those  visible  emblems  of 
human  experience  and  institutions.  A  twist, 
a  curve,  a  change  in  the  shape  and  outline,  and 
final  disappearance  into  the  universal  blue — 
such  is  their  destiny ;  and  yet  each  instant  they 
are  permanent,  apparently,  so  far  as  that  in- 
stant is  concerned. 

**  The  rushing  metamorphosis 
Dissolving  all  that  fixture  is, 
Melts  things  that  be  to  things  that  seem 
And  solid  Nature  to  a  dream." 

It  will  be  useful,  also,  to  consider  the  politi- 
cal machine.  There  is  nothing  which,  in  its 
day,  is  apparently  more  permanent  or  power- 
ful; yet  it  dissolves  in  obedience  to  the  very 
laws  on  which  it  is  built.  So,  my  friend,  there 
is  never  a  time  that  you  can  truthfully  say 
that  there  is  not,  and  never  will  be,  any  place 
for  you  in  the  order  of  society  and  affairs. 

No,  indeed ;  things  are  not  fixed.  Recall  the 
story  of  the  Oriental  monarch.  His  wise  men 
with  all  their  wisdom  could  not  produce  a 
single  truth  that  stood  the  test  of  time.  As 
the  tale  runs,  the  ruler,  weary  of  the  false- 
hoods of  so-called  learning,  called  his  wise  men 
together  and  said  to  them: 

401 


THE    YOUNG   MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

"  I  sicken  of  your  daily  sagacities  which  the 
next  day  prove  to  be  f  olhes.  Tell  me  one  truth 
— only  one.  I  ask  but  a  single  sentence.  But 
let  it  be  a  sentence  that  will  be  as  true  next 
year  as  this  year — a  sentence  which  always  has 
been  true  and  always  will  be  true.  I  give  you 
one  year  to  formulate  one  such  sentence.  If 
at  the  end  of  that  time  you  cannot  state  an 
absolute  verity,  your  lives  will  be  forfeited." 

At  the  end  of  the  year  the  wise  men  came  to 
their  dread  lord  and  said  that  they  had  found 
one  universal  truth.  "  State  it,"  said  their  sov- 
ereign. They  answered:  "Here  is  the  only 
sentence  our  wisdom  can  constiiict  which  is  ab- 
solutely true:  'And  thisj,  too,  shall  pass  away.'  " 
And  so  shall  your  misfortunes,  my  friend  past 
fifty,  pass  away.  "  It  is  a  long  road  that  has 
no  turning,"  declares  the  maxim  of  the  people. 
Your  road  is  no  exception. 

The  historic  instances  of  great  success  past 
fifty  are  numerous  and  inspiring.  They  begin 
with  INIoses,  who  was  forty  years  of  age  when 
"  he  slew  the  Egyptian,"  and  they  come  down 
to  our  present  day;  to  Bismarck,  who,  while 
so  brilliant  as  a  young  man  that  he  attracted 
the  attention  of  Europe,  was  not  great  till  he 
was  past  forty-five;  to  Disraeli,  who,  though 
so  dazzhng  in  his  youth  and  early  prime  that 

402 


THE    YOUNG  MAN'S   SECOND    WIND 

he  astounded  Parliament  and  filled  the  press 
with  comment,  was  not  constructive  or  perma- 
nent in  his  success  till  comparatively  late  in 
hfe. 

Think,  too,  of  those  historic  successes  of 
which  there  was  not  the  faintest  sign  until  far 
past  middle  life — they  are  not  many,  to  be 
sure,  but  they  are  inspiring.  Some  of  the 
great  headlands  that  shoulder  out  into  history 
— Washington,  Lincoln,  and  the  like — became 
visible  to  the  world  after  forty-five. 

Of  course,  it  is  true  that  the  immense  ma- 
jority of  the  world's  great  achievers — gen- 
erals, statesmen,  poets,  philosophers,  inventors, 
builders — have  been  young  men.  But  the 
noble  exceptions  contain  sufficient  encourage- 
ment for  you  if  you  still  have  the  heart  of 
purpose. 

I  like  to  think  of  a  man  fighting  his  best 
fight  just  at  the  end  of  life.  There  has  al- 
ways been  something  attractive  to  me  about 
the  expression  of  Western  hardihood,  "  Dying 
with  his  boots  on,"  and  the  attitude  of  charac- 
ter that  it  describes. 

From  my  infancy  the  story  of  the  Bon 
Homme  Richard  has  been  like  wine  to  my 
blood.  Be  you  like  that  ship,  my  dear  friend 
past  fifty!     She  had,  apparently,  failed,  but 

403 


THE    YOUNG  MAN  AND   THE    WORLD 

she  kept  in  service.  She  had  reached  the  age  of 
decay,  and  her  timbers  scarcely  held  together; 
yet  she  did  not  go  out  of  commission. 

She  attacked  the  Serapis,  one  of  the  young- 
est and  stanchest  and  best  equipped  of  the 
matchless  navy  of  England.  She  was  blown 
full  of  holes ;  still  she  fought.  She  was  on  fire ; 
still  she  fought.  The  water  poured  into  her 
hold  and  she  was  sinking;  still  she  fought. 
Fought,  fought,  fought,  and  in  the  grim,  the 
terrible,  and  the  sublime  end  she  won. 

The  Serapis  was  captured  by  the  Bon 
Homme  Richard,  and  the  victorious  old  ship's 
crew  established  themselves  on  the  decks  of  the 
conquered  Englishman.  The  gallant  veteran 
of  the  waves  was  kept  afloat  that  night,  but 
at  sunrise  the  next  day  they  ran  to  her  mast- 
head her  glorious,  shot-torn  battle-flag,  and  she 
went  to  her  home  in  the  abysses  of  the  deep 
with  that  banner  of  battle  and  ultimate  tri- 
umph flying  as  she  sank  beneath  the  waves. 

Be  that  your  end,  my  friend,  and  that  of 
all  brave  hearts.  Fight  until  the  last,  and  let 
your  noblest  and  most  decisive  victory  be  won 
with  the  final  efforts  of  your  expiring  life. 

THE  END  W 


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